


Affairs of State

by Kazaha_87



Series: Roll With The Wind [2]
Category: Kyou Kara Maou!
Genre: Canon Divergence from the Manga, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-01
Updated: 2016-04-06
Packaged: 2018-04-02 06:33:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 63,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4049842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kazaha_87/pseuds/Kazaha_87
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dai Shimaron, for the nth time, seems to want to start a war, so, to try to elude it, a secret expedition leaves from Shin Makoku to depose King Belar II.</p><p>And meanwhile, in Shin Makoku, Lady Cecilie plots together with Shinou and Ulrike to convince the Ten Nobles' Council to modify a certain law for her first son's sake...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Easier said than done, but that's the plan!

**Author's Note:**

> As for part 1: please, forgive me for any grammar mistakes... I'm doing my best, but english isn't my native language, so, please, have mercy! XD
> 
> Also: obviously - and sadly - I don't own Kyou Kara Maou!
> 
> Hope you'll enjoy this second part of the Roll With The Wind series too! :D
> 
> PS: about characters and relationships, I'm going to update them chapter after chapter.  
> And about the rating... first chapter is still not explicit, but the explicit parts will come later in the story...

“Lord von Grantz… how _unusual_ to see you in a Council meeting at Blood Pledge Castle. How many years was it since the last time you dignified us with your presence? Twenty-five? What brings you here after so long?”, a certain blond, with his fingers laced together in front of him and an unabashed face, asked him when, less than five minutes before the start of the encounter, everybody except the Maoh and the Sage – who were attending at the last guests’ departure after the festivities – were already sat in their seats at the round table.

“As I can see, the only difference since last time I attended is _the Maoh_ , Lord von Bielefeld.”, Adalbert spouted out, caustic.

“Well, certainly your attitude remained unchanged in all these years…”

“I can state the same ab—”

“ _Lord von Grantz, Lord von Bielefeld_ …”, Gunter stepped in with a cheering voice, trying to defuse the atmosphere a little but falling silent the moment the both of them turned to glance at him at the same time as saying ‘stay out of this’.

“My lords, we are here to discuss a delicate issue, today, so, please, behave yourself! We must be grateful to Lord von Grantz for his presence.”

“I agree with Lord von Voltaire”, Lord von Radford intervened and a few others nodded.

“I never said anything like that: I’m just a little _astonished_ to see him here after so long. That’s all!”, Waltrana justified himself with his usual haughty attitude and, that exact moment, the Maoh and the Daikenja entered the Council room.

“We still haven’t started and the atmosphere is already heating up? It seems that things are going to be hectic here, today!”, Ken stated with a smirk on his face when he entered the room and Yuuri hissed at him to just shut up.

Obviously, the other double black widened his grin in response, and Lord von Wincott, Lord von Karbelnikoff and Lady von Rochvall discretely sniggered too.

…there were, actually, something like four big categories of people – with just a few exceptions – that could be counted when speaking of the Daikenja, and the Council was a good representation of them all: the ones who feared the Great Sage, the ones who just respected him, the ones who found him unbearably fascinating – and Lord von Gyllenhaal, who had him in his bed twice, was one of them –, and, finally, the ones, like the three that hided their smirks under their sleeves, who found him just a clever man with a good sense of humor. Then there were mainly Yuuri and Wolfram who saw him just as a pervert and a pettifogger…

“Well: now that we are finally here, I guess we can start…”, Yuuri suggested and Gwendal looked at him as to say ‘…and it wasn’t what I was already trying to accomplish…’. “By the way, Adalbert, I’m really happy to see you here, although it’s under such bad circumstances.”, the Maoh stated with a sincere smile on his face that faded when he thought about the reason behind the meeting. “Maybe you can start with a report of the situation in Dai Shimaron… how about it?”, he proposed and, after a moment of silence, Adalbert started with a detailed account of the situation there and at the borders and, in the end, before a break for lunch, Yozak was summoned to give his report too.

And when, after half an hour, the redhead spy was dismissed, Yozak found Wolfram out of the Council meeting room, conceivably waiting for the sage…

“It’s almost up for this morning, I think”, Yozak winked at him with a knowing smirk and the blond snorted in response, crossing his arms on his chest and raising an eyebrow while pivoting on his right leg. “By the way, nice birthday present you’re wearing…”, the spy decided to insist on the issue and approached him in order to see it better. “And it has the Bielefelds crest on it too! I guess Geika gave it to you when you had your little walk in the gardens last night…”, he implied winking at him again.

Wolfram turned pink despite himself.

“Did you follow us?”, he asked, slightly panicking.

“HOHOO!”, Yozak exclaimed, deeply enjoying himself. “So we have something to hide, here!”, and Wolfram cursed him first and then himself. “By the way, let’s say I have my whistleblowers-web…”, he insinuated and the blond clenched his fists, deeply annoyed.

“You better mind your own business, Yozak! By the way, nothing happened! And don’t look at me with that expression on your face: _it_ _is_ _the_ _truth_!”, he insisted when the grin on Yozak’s lips didn’t fade but widened instead.

“Your attitude and your words are saying two different stories entirely…”

“What do you know?! You know _nothing_!”

“You are just telling me! You are a very bad liar, my lord!”

“I SAID THERE WAS NOTHING!!”, Wolfram shouted and in _that_ moment the door to the Council room opened revealing all ten nobles, Yuuri and Ken ready to go out for their break.

“What is the commotion here?”, Gwendal asked in a severe tone and with a new wrinkle on his forehead and Wolfram turned bright red while Yozak grinned evilly.

“Nothing, brother…”, Wolfram answered in a low voice, deeply embarrassed under everybody’s eyes.

“ _Then_ I believe we can go to the dining room for our lunch break.”, he cut short and walked past him, leading the way for the other Nobles through the hallways.

“Please, nephew: behave yourself”, Waltrana whispered in Wolfram’s ear when he passed near him and, as answer, the younger Bielefeld gritted his teeth and clenched his left fist around the hilt of his sword. “By the way”, Waltrana continued while walking with him to their destination, “I never saw you wearing rings… what is this……”, the last words almost dying in his throat when he saw it better and he _recognized_ it.

“ _Please_ , uncle: _not here_. I will tell you everything later, once _alone_ …”, Wolfram quickly whispered in response, refraining him from asking out loud in front of everybody about it, and Waltrana, for once, didn’t complain but just looked alternatively between him and the smirking Sage with a stunned expression drawn on his face for a few minutes, still in shock.

“May I stole your nephew for lunch time, my lord? I would _really_ like to have him seated next to me. Obviously, if it won’t be a problem…”, Ken asked him a bit later approaching them and Waltrana just nodded under the astonished eyes of Adalbert, who was the only one who knew nothing of what occurred during the two days before…

“By the look on your face and given you weren’t here the last two days I suppose you might like to know that, presumably, we’ll soon have a _new_ official couple…”, Yozak whispered to Adalbert, who just raised an eyebrow.

“As if I care about that Little Lord Brat’s love affairs…”

“You just seemed curious to me. Sorry if I misunderstood your very-badly-hidden questioning glance you threw at them…”, the redhead insinuated with a wide grin drawn on his face and then left the group for _his_ lunch: he wasn’t noble, so he wasn’t invited to join them – not that he cared, anyway…

-&-

“Are you feeling well, Lord von Bielefeld?”, Lord Delchias von Wincott, Lindsey’s father, discreetly asked him while walking back to the meeting room less than an hour later. “You are acting quite strange since we took a break…”

“Oh, yes, thank you.”, Waltrana shortly replied. “By the way, it seems we won’t have much of a choice about the matter we are discussing at the meeting, don’t you believe?”, he asked, quickly bringing the topic to a ‘safer ground’, at least for him. But Delchias just gave him an half smile and, lightly chuckling, shrugged a little.

“We will see what will be proposed and what our Maoh will choose to do…”, Delchias answered after a short silence and then, still smiling, left and joined Lady von Rochvall and Lord von Karbelnikoff who were, as always, chatting together.

-&-

“I know perfectly well that it is _not_ an appealing plan of action, but I fear we don’t have many available choices at our disposal.”, Gwendal insisted.

“No, Gwendal: war is _not_ an available choice. We must find another way. _There must be_ another way!”, Yuuri bitterly replied in a tone that brooked no argument.

“Dai Shimaron never stopped to be in war.”, Adalbert stepped in, gravely. “There is a reason if I decided to live there, to help those people. In Dai Shimaron war, racism, slavery, child prostitution never ceased to exist. It is a big country, and its economy turns – and always turned – around war and taxes and tributes from the neighboring submitted nations. And the League you decided to institute damaged it _immensely_. They _want_ war. They want Shin Makoku to declare war so they can have the perfect pretext to invade you and to conquer you, because their army is bigger, stronger and you are no more used to war… but I guess everybody already knows about it.”, he suggested looking at Gwendal who glared at him for a second before recollecting his composure.

“One more reason _not_ to declare war.”, the Maoh stated and some of the nobles nodded and the others shook their heads in resignation: Heika was right, but the situation was indeed more difficult than that.

“My lords and my lady: _there is_ a way. It is not an easy one, but there is.”, Ken intervened at that point and everyone got silent, waiting for him to continue.

“So?”, Yuuri pressed him when, after half a minute, he still wasn’t going on.

“We should depose Belar II.”

“ _What_?! How?!”, the king asked, raising from his chair, and he wasn’t the only one curious to listen for more of what the Daikenja had to say.

“We might infiltrate there and kill him – or”, he raised a hand and quickly corrected himself before Yuuri could object, “if you don’t want to kill him, imprison him far from Dai Shimaron, for example, _here_. – The biggest problem is him”, he explained. “If, once there, before getting rid of him, we can find a substitute, corrupt his court about choosing someone else and put this person on the throne in his place, then, the game will be finally over. If we can convince them to enter in our League, everything will be easier from then on and for the future generations.”

“Don’t you believe it is a little _too_ _optimistic_ scenario we are talking about, Geika?”, Waltrana asked him, dubious, and maybe for the first time he found Adalbert sharing the same opinion as him.

But Ken smirked at all of them in response.

“I never said it was an easy task… also, if you remember well, I just affirmed the exact opposite…”

“So, what do you propose? Or, better: _whom_ do you propose to succeed him on the throne?”, Lady von Roshvall asked him.

“His nephew: Belar IV.”

“ _Are you kidding?!_ ”, Yuuri almost shouted and Adalbert, who, made exception for Heika and the Sage, was the only one there who knew firsthand the person of whom they were talking about, wore the same shocked expression on his face to the Sage’s proposal.

“He is _perfect_ , Shibuya. Just think about it: we can manipulate him as much as we like.”, Ken stated in response in a nonchalant tone and his friend froze.

“I don’t like to manipulate people! _It’s not right!_ ”, Yuuri strongly complained.

“Life is not right, and, for our and their people’s sake, it’s the best way.”, the Sage replied, cutting it short.

“With all due respect, _Geika_ …”, Adalbert intruded in the conversation, a skeptical eyebrow raised on his face, “but _how_ do you believe that Dai Shimaron’s court could support him? He is an _idiot_! And, if I remember well, you already tried once…”

“The circumstances were a little different then: there were the four forbidden boxes around, and we ‘officially’ were Caloria’s representatives, not Shin Makoku’s. And yes, he actually _is_ an idiot, but he will have at least our support and Shou Shimaron’s, the two _strongest_ States of the League… don’t you think it would be sufficiently persuading for Dai Shimaron’s court? And I was thinking of including Yelshi in our plot too, if possible, although I am not sure that he will agree… but he is as much ambitious as his twin brother, so, with the right offer, I’m quite certain that he will actually take part in our plan too…”

“And what should this ‘right offer’ be?”, Waltrana stepped in, still unconvinced: it was a crazy plan…

“I must admit I’m still thinking about it… we must be pretty careful while treating with our Shinzoku’s twins.”, he affirmed. “They are quite tricky, but nothing I can’t deal with.”, the Sage stated with a knowing glance to everybody who was attending the meeting. “ _And_ , if something will go wrong, we are always in time for declaring war. So, I believe we should put it to vote. Do you agree? Or do you believe we should think of something else?”

But no one was stupid enough to contradict the Daikenja, the Wise Man, the great strategist, and no one had a better plan, so everybody voted for the ‘crazy one’, leaving on him the responsibility of the details.

“If everybody agrees, then, I guess we can end our meeting here.”, he stated and the nobles stood up in sign they were finished discussing about the issue.

“Lord von Voltaire, Lord von Christ and Lord von Grantz… would you mind staying behind for a while?”, Ken called them when everybody was already leaving and the three of them just nodded – Adalbert the most reluctant of the three about that: he liked neither of them, actually…          
“And Shibuya, please, when you go out to accompany the guests, tell Sir Weller, Yozak and Wolfram that tomorrow morning we will all have a meeting about the first details of our expedition to Dai Shimaron…”, he concluded before the Maoh leaved too and then, once Yuuri closed the door of the Council meeting room behind himself, the four of them sat back to their seats.

For the first hour Ken posed a myriad of questions to Adalbert, asking for more details about the situation in Dai Shimaron than the ones he already gave during the Council meeting and then he dismissed him and continued for three more hours with Gwendal and Gunter – two of the best strategists Shin Makoku had – to plan in detail the first part of their trip so as to cover the biggest number of contingencies.

-&-

After almost half an hour passed searching in vain for his nephew all around the castle, Waltrana decided to ask the first person he would have crossed in the hallways – well, servants and guards excluded…

‘ _Fancy how you find no one around when you need them!_ ’, he thought, starting losing his patience.

“ _Oh, Sir Weller_!”, he stated after five more minutes of roaming around, his voice a little higher than usual in order to collect his attention. “May you know where Wolfram is? I can’t find him anywhere.”

“He is training his troops in the courtyard at this hour.”, Conrad replied with one of his typical smiles, a little intrigued by the fact that the haughty Lord von Bielefeld senior was actually talking to him. Then he checked his pocket watch. “He should be finishing anytime soon. Why? Did something happen?”, he inquired.

“Nothing. Thank you. I will go look for him.”, Waltrana cut short without even saying goodbye – not that it was unusual for him – and quickly left.

Conrad decided to follow him out of curiosity given that he had a little free time, but, when he saw Yozak was already behind him, he changed his mind and took the hallway in the opposite direction.

-&-

“ _Adrian!_ Your guard is too low! Raise it a little. You are teaching a new recruit: your technique has to be _perfect_.”, Wolfram reprimanded his second in command while walking among his men, checking their sword-fighting technique.

“YESSIR!”, the soldier quickly corrected his position, turning slightly pink in the face for being rebuked by his commander in front of everybody.

“Better!”, Wolfram stated and then smiled at him, and now, not only Adrian but the new recruit too – although for a totally different reason – blushed.

But the blond just ignored them and walked through.

Then he raised his eyes by pure chance and saw his uncle glaring at him from the porch, his arms crossed on his chest and every fiber of his body shouting his annoyance at a mere glance.

“ _Dismissed!_ Thank you for your hard work _._ ”, Wolfram declared and, after a quick bow to his own troops, he hustled to get to his uncle.

“Is it truly the real thing?”, Waltrana broke the silence that fell between them after a more than ten minutes’ walk through the hallways, the inner courts and the gardens in search for a place with preferably no ears.

“Yes…”, Wolfram replied and bit his lower lip while playing with the ring he was wearing, half embarrassed, half not knowing what to say or, better, how much he could tell him…

“Is he trying to anger Shinou giving that ring to you?”, Waltrana abruptly asked him, accusingly. “I thought it was a lost heirloom, but I deduce it just was by the temple for the last four thousand years…”

Wolfram hesitated, but then he decided his uncle had the right to know – at least something – : de facto, he was a Bielefeld too, and he was the head of the house…

“Well, it seems he actually owns the same rights as him about our ancestor’s belongings…”

Waltrana just raised an eyebrow.

“I am not following you…”

“You see… he told me that he married her after Shinou’s demise.”

“WHAT’S THAT?!”, his uncle shouted, shocked, and, thinking about it, Wolfram was quite sure that he never saw him with a similar expression on his face and that he surely never heard him raising his voice like that before. “I never heard anything about it! I read _all_ the Bielefelds’ records, ALL of them when I was younger, and something like that is _not_ reported anywhere!”

“I know.”

“How can you be so calm about it?!”, Waltrana inquired him. “Also, are you certain he is telling the truth? He is a deceiving man, after all…”, he insinuated.

“How can you say something like that, uncle?!”, Wolfram asked him, astonished, not believing his own ears. “Do you really believe he would have lied about something like _that_? And what would have been the point in doing so?! I know you fear him”, he pointed out, “and I can understand _why_ , but I believe you are crossing the line, here! He is the Great Sage, the Maoh’s right-hand man, _Shinou’s_ right-hand man! How can you state something like that about him? And, just so that you know, he was shocked too when he understood I actually _knew_ of whom this ring was before! He didn’t knew of Rufus’s painting.”

Waltrana fell silent for a few seconds and regained the most part of his composure.

“…I guess I am sorry for my words… I was just a little startled. Well, maybe more than a little.”; he corrected himself after Wolfram's defiant glance. “But I still can’t believe it! How come _no one_ knows about it? Did he, by any chance, tell you how is it possible?”

“Yes, he told me, and it was Shinou’s will.”

“Pardon me, nephew… but doesn’t it sound a little _convenient_ to your ears too?”, Waltrana queried him, back to his skepticism, but Wolfram glared at him, suddenly angry again.

“You have no right to call his words into question. Also, I know _more_ than this, but I am quite sure it is neither the Sage’s nor _Shinou’s_ will to let people know about this particular issue.”

“And might I ask you what would make you any different from me, the _head of the family_ after your father’s departure?! Why shouldn’t _I_ know the details too?!”

“He told me all this because he is actually _courting_ me!”, Wolfram declared, angry and offended and proud, all at the same time.

“SO IS THIS OFFICIAL?!”, he shouted again and twice in a single day surely was an unprecedented occurrence for him.

“He still hasn’t slapped me, but he actually asked me to consider this ring as a courting gift.”, Wolfram bitterly and proudly replied.

“And what did you answer him, if I am allowed to ask?”

“Let’s say that I told him I would have thought about it.”

“Are you _crazy_ , Wolfram?”, Waltrana went back to his usual hissing, “Why do you want to anger him so much? If really he _is_ serious, you should stop to pla—”

“You have nothing to fear, uncle. I’m going to accept him, and, even if it wasn’t the case, your position or my position was not at stake from the start. He is not the man you think he is.”

“Wolfram, listen: I am sure it would be a great honor, but first the Maoh, now the Daikenja, in such a short time… You suffered enough, don’t you think? And, where the Maoh was just a child, he is, despite his current age, a wise man, _the_ wise man, and he lived more than _four thousand years_ …”

“Fear not, uncle. By the way, I will make sure to ask him if I am allowed to tell you what he told me about his past, because I sincerely believe you should know too…”, Wolfram sharply cut short their conversation and, going back to the previous topic, he concluded their talk there, and, all considered, he was pretty calm if excluded his heart, that was furiously pounding in his chest for the adrenaline still running through his veins. Then, with a deep bow, he excused himself and left, going back inside for taking a _long_ and _relaxing_ bath after his training and that _draining_ chat with him.

-&-

“IT’S OUT OF THE QUESTION!!”, a well known voice echoed in the hallways through Gwendal’s office closed door the morning later, after all the other nobles left the castle to go back to their own lands.

“Please, Wolfram: sit down again.”, his big brother invited him to calm down but his request, as expected, had the opposite result.

“YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO ORDER ME AROUND, GWENDAL!”

“No one here is trying to—”

“SHUT UP!”, the blond shouted. “Also, I’m sure it was _you_ , brother, who suggested not to make me go to mission! Like the time when Conrad seemed dead and I wanted to go look for Yuuri! That time too you stepped in and forbid me to leave!”

“And you just did your own thing and went ahead.”, Gwendal retorted.

“And I _saved_ him that time!!”

“Listen, Wolf…”; Yuuri stepped in, trying to make him see reason. “You heard of the situation there. As you already know, in human lands they use Houseki stones for quite every device and, now, _every guard_ was taught how to amplify their power and _has one_ and, as if it wasn’t enough, they are allowed to try it on _anybody_ , and, if they find out you are a Mazoku, they can take you and _imprison_ you. You heard Yozak’s report!”

“I’m not the only one at risk, here! Dai Shimaron’s politic is not just against Mazoku, but against _all of the League’s countries_. As Gwendal said before”, he pointed out, “if they don’t recognize your face they can question you and, if they are not enough satisfied, they can decide to take you to prison, I hasten to add, _without a better reason_! And I _saw_ Yozak’s conditions when he came back six days ago from Dai Shimaron! Neither him was able to deceive them, and he is the most skillful spy we have!”, Wolfram bitterly replied and Ken, Yuuri and Conrad too questioningly turned to Yozak, that just fixed his eyes in his husband’s ones as saying ‘even your brother is more attentive about me than you are’.

And Conrad suddenly understood at least part of the reasons why Yozak seemed more intolerant than usual in the last days, and he cursed himself for not noticing at all, because he would have been able to avoid all _this_ …

“I guess Lord von Bielefeld has a point, here.”, Ken stepped in with a light as much as sad sigh. “And, as you said before”, he continued, now directly addressed to Gwendal, “if we try to forbid him from coming with us, I am sure he will find a way to follow this time too. So, we might as well take him along. At least there won’t be any bad surprises.”, he suggested and Wolfram looked at him and, with a proud expression and attitude, crossed his arms on his chest and, satisfied enough, sat down again.

“ _Exactly_.”, he spouted and everybody else in the room sighed in resignation.

“Then it’s decided. We will leave in four days from now at noon from the port. Meanwhile I have to go back to the temple before leaving: if you need anything, don’t hesitate to write me. Anyway, I’ll be back here the morning of our departure.”, Ken concluded and, with a mere glance at the blond, he silently asked him to follow him once outside the General’s office.

-&-

“Thank you for your support, before.”, Wolfram stated once alone in the fountain garden for avoiding prying eyes.

“I must admit that I’m not sure if I’m happy about you putting your life on the line too… but I guess we had no choice. You are a soldier and, well, you are a Bielefeld, for everything and in everything… I knew it from the start that you’d have insisted to come…”

“How could I let you go alone?”, Wolfram earnestly and promptly replied and Ken half smiled at him and sighed sadly.

“Maybe I should have waited to go out on a limb with you…”

“ _Nonsense_! And I would have insisted to come _anyway_! How could you think that I would have just waited here with idle hands while you all risked your lives any moment for our people’s sake?”

Ken raised a hand and gently caressed Wolfram’s cheek heaving a sigh.

“Considered my past experiences, it’s strange how you were able to make me forget until now about how _painful_ it was to love someone…”

Wolfram looked at him in the eyes, startled by his words, speechless and confused.

“I am actually scared to death at the mere thought of losing you…”, Ken admitted in a whisper and Wolfram’s eyes widened in response while his heart started to beat faster and his cheeks to redden.

He looked away, embarrassed, but Ken cupped his face in his hands and, closing his eyes, fiercely and possessively kissed him as if there were no tomorrow.

“Shouldn’t it be _my_ line? You are the human here…”, Wolfram, still panting a little, replied when he found himself able to speak again after a few moments, his haughty attitude back but more out of habit than anything else.

“Maybe…”

-&-

That same night, around half past ten, Anissina was in her quarters writing one of her adventure books, not sure if she wanted to take her mind off all that or to actually think about it, or just of a way to run away from all of this…

After what happened she thought to go back to Karbelnikoff lands with her brother for a while, but she changed her mind at the last minute.

Another chance was to go to the von Wincott’s: she actually was Lindsey’s tutor, but in less than two months they already arranged to make him come there at Covenant castle under Greta’s and Lindsey’s pressure, so there was no point in going there either…

And she heard from Densham that Heika, Geika, Yozak, sir Weller and maybe Wolfram too – she didn’t understand – were going to leave for a long mission in Dai Shimaron, so, at the castle, there would have been left mainly her, Gwendal and Gunter…

Well: she could hope that Gwendal, as he often did before they got into their affair, would have decided to go to Voltaire Manor for a while and administer everything from there, but what if he wouldn’t have left? And what about Gunter?

Maybe she could have asked Geika to leave with them… she knew that he surely would have agreed. He would have definitely understood her necessities! …but, actually, she wasn’t sure she was in the mood for politics… she wanted to dedicate to her creations, and she couldn’t do it during a mission…

‘ _What to do?…_ ’, she sighed in resignation when someone knocked at her door.

‘ _Greta?_ ’ was her first thought.

Strange: she checked the hour and it was too late for her… usually, at this hour, she was already in her room sleeping…

“Who is it?”, she asked through the closed door and received no answer.

Her heart lost a beat.

‘ _Oh, Shinou! No! Not him! I’m not ready to face him now! I don’t want to see him…_ ’

She hesitated for a full minute before deciding to actually open and she remained speechless when she found not just Gwendal but _both_ her lovers out there.

She was going to slam the door in their faces but Gwendal put a foot in the way and stopped it from closing.

“Let us in”, he shortly ordered her but she put all her weight against the door in order to keep it close as long as she could.

“No, I don’t want to see you. _The both of you_!”, she specified. “So just go away and leave me alone!”

“ _ANISS_ —”, Gwendal started to intimate but Gunter put a hand on his arm like saying ‘let me try’ and he immediately stepped out – foot excluded, just in case…

“Listen, Anissina: we are deeply sorry for the other day. And we love you, so we want to make up with you… we miss you very much…”

“Nice words as always, Gunter! I couldn’t expect less from a literate and _romantic_ man like you!”, she replied bitterly and pushed again against the door trying, in vain, to close it with the two of them _outside_. “But the real problem is not _you_.”, she went on when she failed in her intent.

“Anissina, please, just listen to what we have to tell —”

“I have _no_ _intention_ of listening to your stupid and worthless excuses! So, now, just go away and leave me alone!”

“Please…”

“THAT’S _ENOUGH_.”, Gwendal harshly stepped in shouting irritated. “Open this damn door or I swear in Shinou’s name that I’ll break it in one thousand pieces! If you have something to tell me, just say it _to my face_.”, he ended hissing sharply.

“HOW DARE YOU THREAT—”, Anissina suddenly opened the door shouting, but Gwendal just grabbed her by her shoulders and shut her mouth with a fierce kiss under Gunter’s eyes, who just sighed in resignation and shook his head while briefly checking if someone saw them before pulling the two of them inside and closing the door behind himself.

And, actually, while quickly looking around, he _missed_ two startled but proud eyes who caught the full scene and every single word pronounced…

-&-

Wolfram raised his eyes from the pair of new recruits he was teaching to and, startled, lifted his forefinger silently asking them to wait for him just a minute.

“Yuuri? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with my brother right now, signing documents?”

“Anissina came to look for him and he just ran away, so I thought I could take the opportunity to have a little chat with you… but I guess you are busy…”

At Wolfram silence Yuuri felt the need to specify “Nothing to worry about! I just wanted to have a little chat with my best friend, but I can never find the opportunity ‘cause our schedule is quite busy these days… and we are going to leave in two days…”

“Oh… ok. I’ll tell Adrian to take my place for today’s training. Please, wait for me. I’ll be back pretty soon!”, Wolfram stated and then rushed to his men again.

It took a couple of minutes but at the end he went back to Yuuri and, together, they went for a stroll on the castle walls, actually one of Yuuri’s favorite places.

When they reached the east tower Yuuri sat on the edge of the wall and he waved at him to sit down next to him. Then he opened his jacket and pulled out a flat package as big as twice his hand and gave it to him.

“Here… I wanted to give you this, but in the last two days everything was a little hectic and I didn’t have the chance… I hope you like it.”

“What’s that?”, Wolfram flushed and reluctantly took it.

“My birthday present to you. I found it on Earth the last time I went home.”

“You really shouldn’t have…”

“Why not? On Earth you don’t have to be engaged to exchange presents. It’s your birthday… well, it was your birthday”, he corrected himself and scratched his head a little embarrassed, “and I care for you, so these are two good enough reasons for giving you a gift, Wolf.”

Yuuri brightly smiled at him and Wolfram couldn’t refrain for doing the same, a little embarrassed.

“Thank you, Yuuri.”, he replied and then carefully opened the package to find inside a foulard with a very refined abstract floral pattern in blue, white, gold and green. “It’s beautiful!”, he said while taking off his sober white foulard and putting it in his pocket in order to wear the new one.

“I’m happy you like it. Now…”, Yuuri hesitated a little before continuing while turning slightly pink and scratching his head again like every time he felt uncomfortable about something. “Can I ask you something, Wolf?”

The blond averted his eyes and answered with an uncertain “Yes?”.

“Yesterday, did you insist about coming with us because of him?”

“ _What are you talking about?!_ ”, Wolfram shouted and jumped on his feet again, looking at him in the eyes. “How could you think I could stay here while you all risked your lives for Shin Makoku’s sake?! I’m a soldier, Yuuri! It’s my duty! It’s not for him: it’s for me and my pride as a soldier!”

“It’s risky!”

“And is it _not_ for all of you too?!”

“Well… yes, but…”

“No buts! You heard the report, and I want to be there to help. That’s all, and I won’t change my mind about it in a thousand years!”

“…ok, sorry… it wasn’t my intention to offend you. I’m just concerned about you, Wolf. You suffer very much the influence of Houseki stones, so…”

“Don’t worry for me. I’ll bear with it, and I am not alone. Am I right?”

“Yeah… by the way… there was another thing I wanted to ask you… can I?”, Yuuri changed topic and he blushed while asking him that, thing that made Wolfram more than a little uncomfortable about it.

“Well… I guess you can……”, he replied, a bit on the defensive considered Yuuri’s last question…

“It’s about your ring… it seems old…”, Yuuri started, smiling embarrassed.

“Well, yes… let’s say it’s an heirloom…”, Wolfram answered flushing too.

“Oh, so it was your uncle the one who gave it to you?”, the king replied suddenly feeling silly and starting laughing in embarrassment.

“Well… actually, no…”, Wolfram turned bright red in the face and averted his eyes while hiding his left hand behind his back and starting playing unconsciously with the ring on his finger, biting his bottom lip in the meanwhile.

“OH! _So I was right_!!”, Yuuri stated, half embarrassed, half happy for him, with a totally new enthusiasm. “Then he officially confessed to you!”, he exclaimed and it wasn’t a question but more a statement, thing that left Wolfram even more perplexed.

“And what exactly make you affirm so?”, the blond dryly replied, his arms crossed on his chest, but his face was still red.

“What?”, Yuuri replied a little startled. “Am I wrong? So wasn’t he the one who put it on you? Then you just chose this finger by chance?”

Yuuri raised an eyebrow, not knowing what to think about that issue…

“What’s the meaning of this?!”, he turned even redder in the face than before. “ _Explain yourself, for Shinou’s sake!_ What the hell do you mean?!”, Wolfram started to lose his temper.

“So he actually _was_ the one…”, he insisted and, exasperated, Wolfram shouted a ‘YES, FOR SHINOU! BUT NOW JUST _GO ON_!’

“Well, I noticed that here in this world, and not only in Shin Makoku but everywhere else here, females usually wear rings on their middle fingers and males on their forefingers.”

“Ok, that’s right. So what?”, Wolfram pressed him.

“You know…”, Yuuri hesitated and Wolfram’s eyebrow dangerously raised, impatient. “On Earth there is a tradition, and it’s common almost everywhere… you know…”, he repeated, “the forth finger has another name too… it’s called ring finger…”

“Ring finger? What a stupid name! Why one should wear a ring on that finger _only_?”

“Well, Wolf, you are wearing it there…”, Yuuri pointed out and Wolfram blushed furiously again.

“Well, _yes_ … but it doesn’t count! He put it there, so maybe it had a meaning for him! So why should I have changed finger?”, he justified himself and lowered his eyes in embarrassment.

“It’s exactly what I was getting at…”, Yuuri pinpointed.

“So?”

“…it’s called ring finger ‘cause _there_ you wear the wedding ring and, before, the engagement ring. You don’t have this tradition, but on Earth more than exchanging courting gifts or than slapping people you exchange rings when you officially get engaged, and during the marriage ceremony…”

“Oh……”, Wolfram started panting, flushing.

“So? Is it official yet?”, Yuuri asked after a long silence.

“No… still not… I didn’t know it meant it… this finger, I mean…”, Wolfram stuttered in embarrassment. “I’m sorry, Yuuri… I know it’s too soon after… well…”

“Come on, Wolf! What are you talking about?! If you are happy I am happy too! And I was the one who broke the engagement, and I did it because you were suffering too much! Well, I was suffering too, but you surely needed a breath of fresh air far more than me! And I’m happy you found someone! Well… I’m startled too, ‘cause I would have never guessed a similar outcome, but, well, if you are happy then that’s what really matters! Only, if just that stupid Murata told me, I wouldn’t have worried so much!”, after his messy words out of uneasiness Yuuri sighed and brightly smiled while hugging tightly his best friend. “You deserved someone who loved you more than anything…”, he concluded in a whisper and another relieved sigh.

“Thank you, Yuuri. But, please, let me go… it’s embarrassing!”, Wolfram begged him, bright red in the face, and Yuuri started laughing in response but didn’t let him go.

-&-

“OH, HEIKA! It’s all day I was looking for you! Finally I found you!”, Lady Cheri shouted with her shrilling voice entering the Maoh’s office without even knocking. “I have to discuss with you about a _veeery_ important matter before you leave!”, she stated and a shiver ran down Yuuri’s spine.

“Yes? What’s the matter?”, he asked, but totally uncertain if he really wanted to know more or to just run away. That voice and that enthusiasm together usually meant only _one_ thing: _trouble_.

“I wanted to ask for your permission, in your absence, to try to persuade the Council to change a certain law, which is far too restrictive, so that, at your return, you will discuss it and make it pass without problem!”

“And… which law are we talking about in particular?”, Yuuri asked more doubtful every second.

“It’s about love!”, she replied serious and the Maoh froze.

“ _Love_ …”, he repeated, skeptical.

“Yes!”, she smiled at him in a too innocent way, and he knew too well that smile on Greta – who learned that from her – and it meant she was plotting something…

“I didn’t know there was a law about love…”

“Well”, Lady Cheri continued to smile, “more precisely it’s about unions, but it’s pretty much the same thing, you know?! Don’t you agree?”, she corrected herself and winked at him.

“And what point would you like to change _specifically_?”

He knew he would have regretted about asking that, but he had no choice at all…

“The part concerning the number of people involved in the marriage contract.”, she stated in an easygoing tone, as if just talking about weather.

“What.”, was all Yuuri was able to say.

“Well, Your Majesty! Who decided that _two_ was the only right number for a relationship?”

“Common sense?!”, Yuuri replied, still startled. “Also, I really don’t want to know _who_ you met during this last festivity or your trips, but I believe you are going a little bit too far…”

“But Heika! It’s not for me!!”, she justified herself, “By the way, listen.”, she started again, “Don’t you think that it may happen that, let’s say, _three_ people could love each other at the same time? Why might they choose? It’s not right! But now, for our law, their relationship would be considered illicit, and they would risk their position, their good name, their social status… and all this just because they love more than one person at a time! It’s not right!!”, she insisted.

“Well, Lady Cheri, I believe you can be right and that exceptions do exist, but if everybody could be free to marry more than one person at a time it could be a mess…”, he tried to make her see reason.

He knew it was a lost cause from the start, but at least he had to try! Lady Cheri was being unreasonable as ever!

“Why? Couldn’t it be better, for example, for same sex couples to have an heir and to continue their bloodline? If they marry one woman or, I don’t know, one each other, they would be able to have a legitimate heir without problem!”

“But it won’t be about love anymore…”

“Not necessarily, but why not? Also, it would solve one of the nobles’ main problem about bloodline.”

“Well…”, Yuuri replied still unsure, “I suppose you have a point, at least in part… but _why_ would you want to go this far about that particular issue and why _now_?”

“Why not?”, she asked him back. “I believe it’s very important for our future, and that this law is unfair.”

“Lady Cheri, please. Answer to my question, otherwise I _surely_ won’t give you my permission… although, knowing you, I believe you would act on your own accord anyway… By the way: you said it’s not for you… then for whom is it?”

“Well, Your Majesty… I’m not sure I can tell you… it’s a secret, you know? And, as it is now, they are in a pretty thorny situation if the word spreads around…”

“Please, just tell me and I’ll take your proposal into account. Because, with the Council, you would need my support too when I’ll come back… am I right?”

“You have a point. But it’s a secret, don’t forget!”

“I promise I won’t speak to anybody about this matter…”, Yuuri sighed in resignation.

“It’s Gwendal.”, was all that Lady Cheri said and Yuuri widened his eyes in total disbelief.

“WHAT?!?”, the king shouted, deeply astonished. “ _AND WITH WHOM_?! IT’S STRANGE TO THINK OF HIM WITH JUST ONE PERSON, BUT _TWO_?!? YOU MUST BE KIDDING!!”

“Well, Heika: at least Gunter I believe it was obvious enough… although I must admit I was quite shocked too when I knew that Anissina finally found the courage to face her own feelings for Gwendal after so long!”

Yuuri just shook his head because he lost his speech entirely at the shocking news: ‘ _no, it really was_ not _obvious!!_ ’

“Then I deduce that I can try to convince all the Council members about this particular issue at your place… Because you don’t want to lose your advisor and your chancellor _all at once_ … am I right?”, she concluded in a more serious – almost threatening, in truth – tone, and Yuuri froze again at the mere thought.

“Ok……do as you please……” the Maoh replied in a feeble voice, still in shock, and Lady Cheri, with a curtsey, just left satisfied.

‘ _Luckily I’ll be away in the meanwhile…_ ’, and this thought was all that kept Yuuri together in that precise moment…

-&-

“So finally I’m no more the only one who knows! I was starting to feel a little lonely…”, a smirking Yozak standing against the wall with his arms crossed on his chest in the hallways near the Maoh’s office commented addressed to the previous queen once she crossed her path with him.

“Oh! Yozak! So you knew too! You should have told me!! You know I love gossip, and you know too that if it’s about my dear sons I love it even more!!”, Lady Cheri replied faking a pout.

“Please, don’t exaggerate! If the general has an heart attack, I’ll lose my job!”, he joked, but then he got more serious. “You know that if your plan fails, at least the two of them will lose their position… and I think Lord von Karbelnikoff could risk his place too…”

“Fear not, my dear! _I have a plan_! You just think about your mission in Dai Shimaron: I’ll take care of everything else here!”, she stated in a defusing tone.

“Well… if you say so…”, Yozak replied and, chuckling lightly, he was going to leave when she stopped him.

“Also, Yozak…”, she said, “Please, stop getting into fights with Conrad… You’re going to leave and pass a lot of time together during your long mission, and I’m sure you don’t want a gloomy him near you all the time! By the way… I believe that some good sex would relieve the both of you a little and make everything smoother! Because I have the feeling it’s a lot of time you don’t share the same bed…”, she winked at him knowingly and Yozak slightly chuckled, amused by his mother-in-law’s – even if she didn’t know she actually was it – sexual allusions.

“I’ll make sure to take your advice into account, Lady Cheri!”, he brightly smiled at her and winked back before finally leaving. Then, while walking away, once at ‘safe distance’, he sighed relieved.

‘ _Lucky us she doesn’t know_ exactly _what’s between Conrad and me…_ ’

 

 ...to be continued...


	2. Departure

“WOLFRAM!”, Gwendal shouted, commanding, to the locked door of his brother’s parlor. “Get out of there. RIGHT NOW!”

“Why am I the only one dressed like that?! And why are we going to leave in disguise?! We are leaving on a damn _ship_!!”, the blond demon complained and didn’t open the door.

“So it was decided! And remember that I _never_ agreed on your departure in the first place!”

“That’s not the issue, here!!”

“Yes, it is. You wanted to leave, now you get with the program!”, the General cut short. “Now: it’s late, so get out of your room and just _prepare to leave_!”

“But _why a woman!?_ ”, Wolfram insisted.

“The sage decided for it, and, also, Yozak will be one too for the travel, until you’ll get to Caloria, so you’re _not_ the only one.”

“…well, Yozak doesn’t count! He enjoys cross-dressing!!”, he replied bitterly after a moment of surprise, but recovered soon enough.

“Come on, Wolfram! It’s not the first time you dress as a woman as disguise! So _why_ the sudden whining?!”, his big brother tried to make him see reason and, Wolfram had to admit it, he had a point…

“Hoi hoi! What’s the big commotion?”, a sneering voice asked and Gwendal sighed at the sage’s approach.

“He seems not intentioned to come out of his quarters.”, he dryly replied.

Ken chuckled lightly but after an instant only an enigmatic expression remained on his face.

“Let me try, Lord von Voltaire. We will meet at the gate in a quarter of hour for our departure as scheduled. Please, ask a stable boy to prepare my horse and your brother’s.”, he said and Gwendal rolled his eyes in exasperation but quickly nodded.

He was sure that Wolfram’s protests had something to do with him…

Their ‘little games’ were far _worse_ than before, when his little brother was still engaged to the Maoh, and that was starting to annoy him…

Then, given that _their_ engagement – which he was sure it would have followed soon enough at their return – still wasn’t official, he really didn’t want to think about the future…

With that in mind to depress him, Gwendal shortly bowed and left.

“May I come in?”, Ken asked Wolfram when Gwendal was already far from them.

“What’s the meaning of this farce?! You decided for _this_?!”, he protested raising his voice from the other side of the locked door, clearly alluding to his own attire.

Ken sneered a little when he saw Lasagna, one of the servants, clearly and shamelessly eavesdropping at them.

“I would really like to continue our conversation from here, but I guess you’d prefer me to come inside, because you are attracting attention, and I know you don’t like to be in the limelight for anything not concerning your pride in battle and your skills with your sword or in wielding fire…”, he insinuated winking at the peeking woman that blushed and a moment later he heard the noise of the key in the keyhole turning and unlocking the door.

He smirked while bringing his hand to the handle when the door suddenly opened and a grip at his collar abruptly pulled him inside.

Then Wolfram slammed the door with his boot and threateningly shoved him against the wall.

…and what Ken saw was unusual and particularly enticing: Wolfram wrapped in an anonymous but quite nice long dress that left his shoulders uncharacteristically uncovered and his collarbones sexily exposed. There was just a discordant note…

“Shut your bloody mouth and just tell me why I have to dress like this! Gwendal said _you_ want—”, he started but, his eyes round in shock, he suddenly stopped when his heart skipped a beat. And if before the problem was his own attire, then it became Ken’s appearance – for the sage’s delight.

“ _…WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO YOUR HAIR?!_ ”, Wolfram cried out loudly, making his clutch less firm.

“Everyone of us had to make a little sacrifice, my dear…”, he replied in a flat tone and the blond was so astonished that he passed over Ken’s giving him names.

“But you could have wore a wig too instead of dying them!! _Your beautiful hair_!!”, he repeated, still in shock, his fingers in Ken’s hair before he could check on his own actions.

“I didn’t know you had a kink for my hair…”, Ken suggested with a provocative smirk and Wolfram withdrew his hands in a twitch and gave him a punch in the gut in a reflex.

“HOI!”, the sage complained, doubling over. “ _It hurts_!”

“…sorry…”, Wolfram jerked, but quickly recovered: “ _But you definitely deserved it!_ ”, his voice from uncertain to angry in a blink of an eye, but his face was still red.

For some unknown reason he averted his eyes after his own snooty words, embarrassed by something he saw in the sage’s eyes but couldn’t recognize at a first glance, and Ken, as to answer to his mute question, took his chin between his thumb and his forefinger and, drawing him nearer, he passionately kissed him while, with his other hand, he whipped the foulard around Wolfram’s neck away and tossed it to the floor, maybe a little bit more bluntly than he intended to: it was beautiful and it surely suited him, but he eyed it since the moment he entered and, for some reason, he didn’t like it on him…

“ _What are y_ —”, Wolfram started to protest, throwing an arm at the foulard direction trying to catch it before it fell on the ground and inevitably pulling out from the kiss, but Ken interrupted his complaints and his attempt squeezing harder his chin between his fingers and forcing him to keep looking at him in the eyes, that were darkening behind the blue contact lenses he was wearing.

“A pretty woman catches less eyes than an astoundingly gorgeous man like you. It’s the better disguise for you.”, Ken answered to Wolfram’s first question, at least momentarily avoiding his last one, serious and provocative and eager, looking directly into his eyes.

“ _What the heck of an explanation is that?!_ ”, Wolfram complained, suddenly forgetting about the piece of fabric lying on the floor, flushing and slightly panting despite himself while biting his bottom lip in the meanwhile, his hands shivering a little and his pupils starting dilating too.

“This beautiful and soft golden hair”, Ken said in a whisper, his long fingers suddenly playing with a blond lock behind Wolfram’s ear, slightly brushing against it. And Wolfram shivered, silently but openly asking for more contact keeping closer to the sage’s hand in a whim…

Ken hid a smirk, not giving him what he blatantly craved for on purpose, and continued: “…these striking emerald fierce eyes of yours… and this perfect fair complexion…”, the sage ended with a very light caress on his cheek and a sexy and arousing voice. “They are too catchy! You are too handsome, Wolfram. Everybody who sees you would inevitably remember you, and we are undercover…”

Wolfram’s heart skipped a few beats and he loudly gulped, his mouth dry, while now plainly and shamelessly panting, their noses almost touching, his cheeks turning even redder than before, his neck muscles suddenly tensing.

Without even noticing, Wolfram edged closer and closer until Ken’s even breath – so much in contrast with his own, all messed up – was practically on his mouth.

Every _inch_ of him yearned for more, but Ken, in response, now openly grinned at him in a sadistic way and, his hands firmly on Wolfram’s shoulders, he gently but resolutely pushed him away.

But, even if Ken’s breath was fairly regular in spite of the moment, the blond demon didn’t miss the feral look into his eyes, which gazed at him the same way a predator would have greedily stared at his prey…

“You better cover your charms before we leave…”, Ken stated as if he was unconcerned, adjusting his spectacles on his nose with his left middle finger and, avoiding every further contact, with a smug and unnerving smirk he moved to open the door but stopped the moment he sensed the blond moving behind his back.

“NO! NOT THAT!”, Ken commanded in a stern voice and Wolfram, who was trying his best to regain his composure finding something to do, jerked in surprise, frozen still where he was.

“ _Wh_ —”, he exclaimed in a light cry, startled.

Ken moved closer again, a sudden and inexplicable anger into his eyes…

“It certainly suits you, but I _don’t_ like it.”, he stated, serious, almost hissing at him. His words made no sense at all, and Ken knew it, but it was exactly like that, so it made sense to him… at least in a way… “If you want to wear something on your neck, have this”, he offered in an attempt to make his statement a little more reasonable to Wolfram too and, taking off his own foulard, he tied it around the blond’s neck before moving away.

“…Ken…”, Wolfram, raising a hand in reflex to touch the new cloth he was wearing, called him back in a weak and raspy voice when Ken was already by the door again.

The sage stopped once more, but didn’t turn back.

“I will wait with the others by the gates. Please, make it quick: it’s pretty late.”, he replied in a flat tone hiding a victorious grin blatantly ignoring the blond’s mute plea – and the one of his own body.

Then he just left, finally getting even with him for the last time in the inner court, a few days before, leaving on purpose a horny and aroused Wolfram behind, who, before being able to do anything else, first thing first had to deal with his hard on…

And Wolfram, left alone again in his own room, finding a support in the wall, hurriedly leaned against it, panting hard, his green eyes black for the most part now.

“ _Fuck off, you jerk_ …”, he murmured between his teeth while hastily lifting his dress and freeing his erection from his last constriction. Then, a hand moving up and down his shaft in an increasingly frantic pace and the other one keeping Ken’s foulard on his nose and mouth inhaling his perfume, moaning and groaning shamelessly far from others’ ears, he came crying the sage’s name.

-&-

“Wolf! What took you so long?”, Yuuri innocently asked him when he arrived almost a quarter of hour after Ken. “Murata told us you just had to put on your wig and your contacts!” and the demon, caught off guard by the sudden question, turned pink and answered back a moment too late.

“…I’m not used to wearing contact lenses!”, he said, but Ken glanced knowingly at him. “And stop looking at me with those eyes, you perverted sage! It’s _nothing_ of what you’re thinking!”

But Ken, at the comment, sneered at him even more openly than before and, while Gwendal and Conrad just rolled their eyes in exasperation, Gunter, Yuuri and Greta seemed to have missed a step in what was going on, and Yozak, Anissina and Lady Cheri smirked knowingly and, where the first one winked at the sage, the last one giggled of her third son’s ingenuity and sweetness.

“Oh, Wolfie, dear! It’s _natural_ to have urges! You don’t have to be ashamed!!”

“ _MOTHER_!!!”, all her three sons yelled in unison and, when the sage started to openly laugh, followed by Yozak, everybody fell silent despite themselves at Wolfram’s shouting Ken’s name to make him shut up.

“Come on, people! Is it so strange if he calls me by my name? We’re going out! Am I right, Wolfram?”, Ken tried to defuse the stunned atmosphere but, even if it was obvious for everybody, his words didn’t help at all.

“ _I NEVER agreed in the first place_!!”, Wolfram bitterly protested after recovering from the shock, and he took him something like five seconds, but his face was as red as a tomato despite every desperate attempt he made to keep his cool.

“Oh…”, Ken replied when the atmosphere around them became tense because everybody thought the sage would have gotten angry. But Ken posed a hurt reaction before smirking in a provocative way at Wolfram, fake blue eyes in fake brown ones. “Then I might have misunderstood something… sorry, then! But I’m sure everything will get clear soon enough… do you agree at least on _this_ , _Lord von Bielefeld_?”, he mocked him watching him in the eyes challengingly and Wolfram hesitated just a moment, startled by the effect that his title and _not_ his name or other ‘pet names’ he often gave him made to him. Was he really used to them to that point already?!

And Wolfram, still red in the face, snapping in a dramatic way in order to hide his embarrassment, quickly moved to get to his Nemesis, mounted and, just waving a hand to say goodbye to the ones who stayed behind – hurting Greta a little for this… –, shouted a “ _Just shut the hell up, Ero-Geika!_ ” without turning back while extending his horse at full gallop.

Then, with something like a replay of the initial reactions at Wolfram’s arrival – made exception for Yuuri that joined the ‘Gwendal-and-Conrad’s group’ –, the others said goodbye to Lady Cheri, Greta, Gunter and Anissina and left too, heading down to the port with Gwendal who leaded the way.

It was unusual and sure it was _illogical_ too that the Maoh’s First General would leave with them, given they took the trouble of leaving undercover, but no one dared try a comment about it.

And this ‘arrangement’ was because, after Wolfram’s behavior from before in his quarters, Gwendal decided that he _absolutely_ needed to have a little chat with him before they would all leave for months, so, while waiting for his brother, he prepared his own horse and chose to accompany them… obviously _not_ all the way!

Then, when they were almost halfway between the castle and the port, the General discreetly drew near Wolfram’s horse in order to finally speak with his little brother.

“Wolfram…”, he said lowly with his baritone voice and, the instant later, sighed deeply, something more like in a fatherly way than in a brotherly one.

“Yes?”, Wolfram replied, a little startled by his tone and maybe more by the mere fact that he approached him to have what seemed a ‘serious talk’ with him in private – as much as the situation allowed them…

“Please, don’t push this game too far.”, he just stated, as direct as ever, and Wolfram, shocked, reined in Nemesis and stopped to watch him in the eyes; but Gwendal, after a quick but intense glance, kept his horse at trot and continued to watch in front of him in hope not to collect _too_ _much_ attention from the others.

Obviously he knew that everybody was watching at them from afar, but he could do nothing about it, so he just ignored his surroundings and, keeping his cool, went on, because his little brother _needed_ to listen to what he had to tell him…

“Listen, Wolfram: I know something changed between you two the night you came back together when Yuuri Heika broke the engagement, and _I know_ you started loving him since then…”, he said and Wolfram froze in panic, so he just continued. “I guess the both of you are enjoying your little game, and that he surely pushed you to your limit before, but don’t push it too far… don’t push _him_ too far. He surely cares for you, but pay attention: what if your game goes too far in respect to where you intended to bring it? I know _for certain_ ”, he remarked, “that he has some strange ‘kinks’…”, he suggested and averted his gaze from his brother’s, a little embarrassed too. “You know from your own experience that he can be vindictive when he feels like it, so I fear he could be a bit harsh in bed too despite his always smiling face and easygoing attitude… but I’m sure you already started to notice…”, he implied and Wolfram was so _traumatized_ by his words and the _topic_ of their conversation that he remained wordless, his face and ears bright red, his hands shaky and his eyes and mouth wide open. Not that he couldn’t have guessed as much as that by himself, but having his brother telling him something like that was an _horrific_ experience…

Their mother would have been proud of her first son if that instant she was there to listen to them…

Gwendal, ignoring his reaction, decided to go on nevertheless: he started this conversation, and he would have ended it at all costs before his brother’s departure!

“He gave you that ring and Conrad told me about this particular Earth’s tradition and the meaning of the finger where you wear it… Don’t humiliate him with your behavior. At least not in front of _everybody_. Before… you’ve gone too far.”, Gwendal explained after reprimanding him and Wolfram would have just wanted to hide somewhere, too embarrassed to raise his eyes or speak… or even breathe!

“…he just caught me off guard…”, Wolfram justified himself in a weak voice after a very long and tense silence, not sure of how to answer him.

“I’m certain of it. Just don’t offend him in front of everybody and don’t provoke him too much. For your own good! And, if possible, don’t do it when he actually is in good faith, because before he was covering for you and your little mistake when you called him by his given name in front of everybody…”

“…you see, brother…”, Wolfram started after another long silence, “Thank you for your concern and your advice, but I surely can take care of myself and I can _definitely_ state that I don’t feel like having this conversation with you… _it’s_ deeply _embarrassing_ …”, Wolfram hissed the last words, clearly off balance, and Gwendal snapped in response.

“I wanted you to know my opinion and to give you some small advice before you left for months, my brother, and I felt like sharing with you some information about him I gathered in the last few years in order to make sure you won’t approach him _unprepared_ …”, he replied in a stern but allusive voice and then just turned his horse to step back and join Yozak for his last advices and recommendations about messages and news he wanted from him during their mission when Wolfram stopped him.

“Gwen!”

The older demon turned to watch at him and Wolfram timidly smiled at his brother before averting his eyes from Gwendal’s.

“By the way… I appreciate the intentions behind your words. And I won’t repeat it once more, but thank you for your concern… _and your approval_ …”, he whispered the last three words and they almost went lost in the wind. “It’s more than what my uncle gave to me…”, he said and then he hastened his horse a bit after Gwendal’s nod in response. Then the General turned back again and finally moved to his underling.

-&-

“Just in time!”, Yuuri sighed in relief once the five of them got to the harbor after finally leaving Gwendal behind, a couple of miles from there.

“We better get up on the ship, my lovely family!”, Yozak exclaimed faking a woman’s voice and getting into the part that had been assigned to him. “Come on, husband, dear! Let’s go!”

It was just a brief moment, but Conrad froze at the handle and both Ken and Yuuri, who were walking together to the boardwalk right behind them, noticed and looked at each other a little baffled by the reaction.

Wolfram, on the other hand, standing alone behind the four of them, hesitated before boarding, deeply inhaling and exhaling once, then twice, looking blindly at the sea.

Ken, with a bright and sympathetic smile, left Yuuri’s side and walked a few steps behind to reach him; then he held out a hand, but the blond fended it off with a thwack that made him twitch his eyebrow in surprise as asking ‘what was that for now? I was just trying to be nice, here!’.

“I don’t need any help, _thank you_!”, Wolfram replied bitterly. “And, by the way, it isn’t _appropriate_ for _a_ _lady_ to share a stateroom with a man, ‘brother or _cousin_ ’,” he said referring to Yuuri’s and Ken’s parts respectively, “so you two can share a cabin and I can stay alone in another one.”, he dryly stated and, snapping loudly, he moved past him and Yuuri, and reached his brother and Yozak a little above.

He was going to pass them too when Yozak grabbed him by the shoulders and nestled him in a strong grip, impeding him any movement.

“What would your brother say after he actually took the trouble to warn you about your dear _cousin_ before?”, he suggested whispering in his ear with a wide smirk and Wolfram froze, pure panic on his face when he raised his gaze in order to watch directly in the spy’s alluding blue eyes.

“ _HOW—_!!”, Wolfram cried out loud, but Yozak, still sneering, interrupted him.

“I have _very_ good ears, _my_ _daughter_!”, he remarked in a louder voice, starting deeply enjoying their play. “Am I right, _husband_ , dear?!”

“If my dear cousin Yu agrees, I will gladly share the stateroom with him! There is no problem by me. Also, surely I don’t want to aggravate my hot-tempered fiancée’s mood before leaving already…”, Ken replied with a smile and a defusing tone while approaching them on the main deck and Yuuri just nodded while Conrad glared at him threateningly.

“I’M NOT YOUR FIANCÉ!!”, Wolfram shouted in reply and everybody – crew and passengers – turned to watch at the source of the big fuss.

Everybody remained silent and Yozak, a bit startled, let him go. Then, in that exact moment, a loud slap echoed in the sudden silence and in Wolfram’s ears when he found himself with his head turned on the right.

“Now you officially are, given the position of your face: it seems you _formally_ _accepted_ my proposal.”, Ken angrily replied and he just left them to go below deck to his cabin, followed soon enough by a concerned Yuuri.

And Wolfram, after a full minute passed totally motionless where he was, his face still turned around, his cheek red and pulsing and his eyes staring blankly, the moment the ship landed he had to run to the balustrade to throw up as always…

The only difference from all the other times was the tears, running unrestrained along his cheeks…

Conrad was going to approach him in order to comfort him, but Yozak linked his husband’s arm and forced him to follow him.

“Just leave him alone.”, he whispered and shook his head with a sigh while walking on to their assigned stateroom too, taking Wolfram’s luggage with them.

-&-

“What the hell were you thinking, Murata?!”, Yuuri shouted after slamming the door of what would have been their cabin for the next five days.

“Please. _Please_ , Shibuya”, Ken begged him, exasperated. “Just leave me alone, ok? I’m really _not_ up for a lecture right now! And certainly not from _you_ of all people!”

“Geez, Ken! You made him _cry_!!”, Yuuri protested and Ken suddenly raised his eyes and fixed them in his friend’s ones, startled, and not only by his statement, but also by the use of his first name to reprimand him: it was the first time Yuuri called him ‘Ken’, made exception of their last undercover mission.

Ken tried to reply but the words seemed to be stuck in his throat, so Yuuri persisted.

“Why did you have to slap him in the first place _and_ in a moment like that, in front of everybody?!”, he went on. “He really loves you, but you hurt him! You humiliated him!!”

“ _Shut up_.”, he hissed in response in a low but sharp voice, his eyes icy, but Yuuri had never been intimidated by him: he always considered themselves as equals and, four thousand years old or not, in his eyes Murata was just his friend.

“Listen…”, the king tried in a softer tone but he was muted.

“I said: shut. UP!”, Ken snapped at him, his eyes fierce and his gaze piercing.

“Listen, Ken… I know ho—”, he started again.

“OH! You know how I feel?! Was it _that_ what you were going to say right now?!”, Ken retorted in a cynical laugh and Yuuri averted his eyes abashed. “At least you seem to understand the hypocrisy of your words with no need for me to tell you outright!”, he added to his silence, caustic.

Yuuri sighed and this seemed to worsen Ken’s mood even more. “You’re one to talk, Shibuya! _You_ , who never loved him and who made him suffer for _six long years_ under everybody’s eyes. Under _my_ eyes!”, the sage piled it on and Yuuri flushed, not expecting to become the reprimanded one. “At least I _knew_ what I was doing slapping him!”

“Ok, Murata, you’re right, but…”, Yuuri conceded but Ken went on, interrupting him for the nth time.

“Two public refusals in less than an hour and a half was enough, don’t you think? I tried to be patient, to defuse the atmosphere in front of everybody and to oblige him, to give him time, but I was repaid by—”

“ _He was just embarrassed, jeez!!_ And _you know it_! You didn’t have to go that far! He was _really happy_ to be courted by you and you ruined _everything_!”, Yuuri shouted again, exasperated.

“…he told you this?”, Ken’s heart skipped a beat and he hesitated – a pretty rare occurrence for the Great Sage –, so Yuuri took the chance to save their conversation and to switch it to a constructive speech instead of a simple quarrel like every time he tried to speak to him about Wolfram before then.

“Not those exact words, but you had to see his face when I asked him about the ring and I told him about the meaning of the finger where you put it on. You didn’t tell him…”

“When?”, the sage hastily asked, his breath short despite himself and his usually perfect composure, and Yuuri’s eyebrows twitched in confusion. “Since when does he know?”, Ken quickly clarified and Yuuri replied just “two days ago”.

“…he didn’t change finger…”, he stated, not a question, and Yuuri nodded.

“I’m a douchebag, am I not?”, Ken laughed sadly while turning his back to his friend and closing his eyes. “I don’t know why I lost my temper before…”, he confessed, resigned to his own stupidity. “I know he loves me and desires me as much as I do, but I guess I’m frustrated…”, he heaved a sigh and gritted his teeth before obliging his sudden need of cursing: “ _Fucking hormones!_ ”, he growled. “I’m in a body of a _damn_ twenty-two years old young and healthy man _in_ _love_ and with consequent strong urges, and sometimes I tend to forget! I’m anidiot andI screwed everything, _damn it_!”, he cried in exasperation and punched the wooden wall of the stateroom in frustration and guilt and Yuuri couldn’t help but widen his mouth and raise his eyebrows: it was _the_ _first time_ Ken was so honest in front of him! And maybe the first time he seemed so human…

“You can still save the day if you go and apologize to him… I’m sure he will forgive y—”, Yuuri was encouraging him when both of them were distracted by a yell from the room next door.

They easily recognized the voices – and it was rare to hear them shouting…

They involuntarily stopped in order to listen to what was happening next door and less than ten seconds later they found themselves to confusedly look at each other, shocked by what they just happened to overhear…

And when they heard the noise of a slammed door and, after a few seconds, the one of something crashed presumably on the floor – or the wall, or the said door – Yuuri and Ken silently agreed that maybe Wolfram would have had to wait a bit more…

-&-

Meanwhile, at the castle, during lunch Lady Cheri announced that she would have been out for the rest of the day but that she would also have been back for dinner so, after the meal, she asked to get her carriage ready and, in less than a quarter of hour, she left.

Gunter watched her depart from a window and then, swimming through the hallways in his white long robe wrapped around his slender body, his long silver hair floating gently behind his shoulders and along his back, he reached Gwendal’s office, knocked and, without waiting for an answer as always, he just entered and gracefully closed the door behind himself.

“What’s the meaning of knocking if you won’t wait for an answer?”, Gwendal sighed without even raising his eyes from the paper he was reading, but three seconds later he found himself in a passionate kiss, his face firmly squeezed between his lover’s hands and turned up and left in an uncomfortable angle.

He heaved a sigh and just pushed his chair back in order to draw him down on his lap and gain a better position, all without drifting apart from Gunter’s lips.

“Judging by your wanton behavior in broad daylight, I assume my mother already left…”, he stated after a very deep and long kiss when they withdrew to breathe.

“You assumed right…”, Gunter panted heavily and, squeezing his cheeks even harder than before, in a whim he strongly pushed him down again against the seatback and kissed him once more, and, heated up by the previous buss, this time their tongues started a fierce fight for dominance while their fingers roamed around in search for clothes to take off… a fight that Gunter happily lost when he found himself with his shirt down to his waist, ready to get slammed onto the table and be taken hard after being briskly stripped of the rest of his garments.

“AHEM!”, a livid Anissina cleared her throat for the _fourth_ time before being able to gain their attention and both of them jerked in surprise, Gunter with an emphatic cry. Then they recognized her and visibly relaxed.

“After your words of the other day I thought you two would have taken me in better consideration, _but clearly I was wrong_ …”, the woman bitterly implied and she was going to leave when Gwendal, after lifting Gunter from his lap and making him sit on his desk – _and his papers_ without a single flinch –, quickly reached her and stopped her grabbing her wrist before she could exit his office. Then he locked the door and tried to loosen her mood with a deep and sloppy kiss.

“This trick won’t work twice, Gwen!”, she tried to resist, still angry, but that exact moment Gunter reached them and, from behind her, he started to caress and tantalize her breasts and nipples through her clothing while gently kissing and licking her neck, hitting both her weak spots and eliciting more than a gasp and a moan from her lips despite herself and her futile attempt to keep her cool. Then, growing more aroused by the minute by her raising excitement and Gwendal’s groans in response, gently biting her neck Gunter instinctively started moving his hips back and forth, rubbing his raising arousal against her soft behind and drawing more mourns and cries of pleasure out of her throat.

“I knew you were going to come too and I started to warm the atmosphere while waiting for you, my dear…”, Gunter suggested whispering in her ear and she moaned before going back to her senses and replying. “It _didn’t_ seem like that when I arrived: it took you _two whole minutes_ to notice I was there in spite of my attempts to collect your attention.”, she bitterly answered back, evidently holding a grudge against them, and Gunter flushed a little feeling just a bit guilty.

“…I got carried away in the meanwhile… understandable, don’t you believe? We are _finally_ alone, without risks of intrusions! I’m sure that you would have reacted the same way, if you arrived before me!”, the older demon complained and Gwendal just clutched Gunter’s chin between his fingers and shut him up with a kiss while, with his other hand, he grabbed Anissina’s buttock and squeezed it hard, drawing her up his leg so that she could feel the swelling in his pants and, maybe, understand that it wasn’t the right time for that kind of complaints… and it worked.

“ _Curse you both!_ ”, she panted after tossing her head back, biting her own bottom lip in anticipation; then she bended down enough to grab her tight skirt and lifted it up in order to be able to raise a leg and cling to Gwendal’s hip for more contact against her sensitive spot between her legs. Meanwhile she threw herself behind, her back arched in a sensual way, her arms over her head to make it an easier job for Gunter to free her of her shirt and jacket, her face against the white bare skin of his chest, her nose in his inebriant perfume and her hands into his magnificent, soft and ridiculously long silver hair.

She groaned a ‘ _yes_ ’ in a raspy voice the moment her breasts popped out of her bra and Gunter pinched her stiffened nipples while nipping her neck and chewing her ear lobe, and Gwendal bit hard the soft skin of her small bosom eliciting a surprised and aroused cry from her dry lips that stood out over the moans and groans of pleasure for Gunter’s attentions on the rest of her body.

“Take me…”, she suddenly wheezed, frantically, her pupils widened. “… _together!_ ”

“ _Oh goodness gracious!_ ”, Gunter gasped in anticipation and Gwendal snickered in response to her plea and his colorful comment. “It was _more than a month_ you didn’t ask for this!”, the older demon stated, still happily surprised and Anissina almost chocked his head off.

“WHO CARES IF IT’S A MONTH OR A YEAR!!”, she complained in a loud shout. “YOU HEARD ME, SO JUST OBEY!!”

“Oh _shut up_ , if you don’t want me to fill _your_ _mouth_ instead!”, Gwendal snapped and both Anissina and Gunter blushed furiously.

It was pretty rare to hear Gwendal be so salaciously direct and it aroused them both so much that, if it wasn’t for the prospect of a mutual pleasure for them _together_ , probably the two of them would have fought to the last drop of blood on whom between them should have had the right to be the first one to take Gwendal’s cock in their mouth…

At their expression Gwendal shook his head in exasperation and, grabbing Anissina by her hips, he turned her so that she could be face to face with Gunter and then he not-so-lightly slapped one of her white and well-shaped buttocks.

“WHA—!!”

“Strip him and prepare him while I prepare you, if you really want something in your mouth now and something _inside_ _you_ later.”, he suggested in a commanding tone and the other two flushed again: why in the world was Gwendal so direct?! He seemed to be having even less patience than usual…

‘ _Just what happened?!_ ’, they asked themselves, but, that precise moment, they were too much in the mood for sex for seriously thinking about it: so they just obeyed him and lost themselves in pleasure on the big carpet of his office, one with his own erection inside the sloppy cavity of Anissina’s mouth and the other one with Gwendal’s fingers playing with her clitoris and filling her behind hole in order to prepare her for Gunter’s access later.

“OH GOOD SHINOU!! _Please_ , tell me you are ready!!”, Gunter beseeched after a few minutes of particular attentions on his lower half and Anissina raised her head to watch at her job; and the view of him, completely messed up, his back arched, his head tossed behind, his eyes semi-closed and his long hair disheveled all over the floor, aroused her even more.

She turned to Gwendal and a mere glance at her was enough for him to understand: he lowered his pants, opened the laces of his constricting underpants and freed his own erection too; then he turned her and kept her down over him.

They kissed sloppily while she impaled herself upon him and a deep and rough groan wormed out of Gwendal’s throat when he felt her completely around him and she smirked against his lips in response, smug of the reaction she stirred up in him.

She started moving her hips up and down slowly, feeling him deeply inside her, when Gunter approached her from behind and, gently nipping her earlobe, a hand teasing one of her bare and hard nipples and the other one on his boner, he pushed his arousal against her other tight but hungry hole.

“Bite it. I don’t want the guard outside to hear you squeal in pleasure.”, Gwendal commanded pulling his foulard against her mouth while Gunter, very slowly and carefully, fully filled her too, and she obeyed without complaints, suffocating her moans of pleasure mixed with pain in the piece of cloth between her teeth.

After a pause, at her signal Gunter started to move, slow but deep in and almost out, now both his hands on her breasts and Gwendal’s ones strongly clutched on her hips, helping her in her movements and rocking against her in order to also gain more pleasure from it.

They thrust hard one against the other inside her until they came, in a pretty short lapse of time the ones from the others, Gunter collapsing over Anissina and she above Gwendal, the three of them panting hard trying to catch their breath.

When, after a couple of minutes, Gunter tried to roll around and switch next to them on the big carpet in order not to squeeze them behind his weight, he was stopped by Gwendal’s arms around his waist that refrained him from every movement.

A soft cry of protest and surprise left Anissina’s and Gunter’s lips but they didn’t shake Gwendal’s resolution.

“I love you both.”, he declared in a soft whisper and, when he saw the other two flushing in a bright shade of red, he unclasped them and closed his eyes, satisfied and content. Then Gunter and Anissina rolled each of them on a side of him and rested on his chest for almost ten minutes, when they stood up from the ground and, tidied themselves up, they went back to their works and affairs.

-&-

“It’s an honor to be received by the Great First King in person.”, Lady Cheri exclaimed and made a gracious curtsy to Shinou before turning to the little woman next to him and brightly smiling at her too. “Ulrike! I was so happy when I received your answer this morning!”, she added and the first priestess blushed a little and smiled at the ex-Maoh back, just slightly bowing her head.

“It is a pleasure indeed to be asked for advice for a similar affair, my lady.”, Shinou replied. “I must say that I enjoy pretty much watching your lives, and the idea of being involved in _this_ particular matter is an enticing prospect for us… it can be quite boring here by the temple… am I right, Ulrike?”, Shinou asked her first priestess and she rolled her eyes at him because he could be a little bit subtler, but nodded: when Shinou was right, was right… Actually, there _was_ a reason if she started to eavesdrop at the Daikenja when he was by the temple…

“So… what did you wanted to ask me? Or us…”, Shinou went on and sneered at the beautiful ex queen.

“Well, you know… I thought: ‘who knows his subjects better than the Great First King?’ ”, she said.

“Oh, my lady! You flatter me!”, he smirked at her and she answered with the same sly expression drawn on her face.

“Also”, lady Cheri continued, “Three minds are better than just one, and it is more fun like this. Don’t you agree?”

“Oh, _absolutely_!”, he conveyed and put his hands behind his head, profusely smiling at her. “So, my dear mischievous lady: what do you have in mind?”

She decided for being direct.

“I want to persuade the Ten Nobles – one by one – of the salience of this particular issue, and I would really like to devise an efficient plan of action with you two for a _full success_ in order to make the law easily pass when the Maoh would be back from his mission in Dai Shimaron.”, she stated serious, and Shinou maliciously winked at her while Ulrike smirked in a subtler way.

“You have come to the right place, my fair lady. Ulrike: invite her to sit down and let’s discuss about the plan in a more comfortable position!”, Shinou said and chuckled lightly, and his vestal soon obeyed, grinning – not seen – in anticipation too when she turned her back to the beautiful woman and leaded the way to the next room – the guests’ parlor, where who needed to be received waited for the first priestess or, now, the Daikenja –, furnished with a sofa and a couple of comfortable armchairs.

And it was a rare honor to use that room with the first priestess – and with Shinou nonetheless, given that almost no one knew he was back – and Lady Cheri was well aware of it…

 

 ...to be continued...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Actually this chapter contains the most explicit scene I've ever written...  
> It's quite different to read them and to write them...  
> Hope you liked it.
> 
> See you in the next chapter


	3. The past must stay in the past...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait... it was a very hard chapter for me and I had a few writer-blocks (it's mostly Conrad's fault...)  
> But I hope you'll like it!  
> (And I hope you'll forgive me for how I treat Conrad... you have to believe me: it isn't intentional! He just comes out like that... sorry sorry sorry!!! He will redeem! It's a promise!!)  
> And, as always, forgive me for any grammar mistakes you'll find...

“Don’t worry.”, Yozak tried to reassure his husband once in the privacy of their own cabin, when, after a few minutes in which he tried to speak about trifles, he noticed Conrad hadn’t paid attention to a single word he said. “It will be ok in no time: we’re speaking of the Daikenja, here.”, he said laying down on one of the beds.

“How can you be so calm about it?! It’s the _first time_ I see Wolf cry in public, and it’s _the Sage’s_ _fault_!”, he suddenly woke up from the ‘trance’ he was in until then and insisted in a frustrated yell, still shaken by the situation.

“As I already said: it’s the Great Sage’s we’re talking about, Conrad. _Everything_ will go back to the right place in a blink of an eye! Have faith, love!”, he repeated in a defusing tone and with a cheering smile, but, for some reason, that infuriated the other man even more.

“Your ‘ _never-failing_ ’ sage”, he harshly spouted, “just slapped Wolfram on a whim! Don’t you believe you have a little bit too much confidence in him and in his ‘ _ineffable faculties_ ’?”, he bitterly replied and Yozak, in response, got back to sit and watched intently into his eyes for a _long_ instant, sensing that, hidden in his words, there was a greater accusation against him… an accusation he didn’t deserve.

“What are you trying to imply, Conrad?”, he dryly retorted, suddenly on the defensive.

“Exactly what I said…”, he provokingly answered him, never taking his eyes off Yozak’s, and the spy, outraged, jumped on his feet and, once reached him in just two steps, he grabbed him by the collar.

“ _Listen. Carefully!_ ”, he hissed to his face and started raising his voice without even realizing it. “I’ve never cheated on you. NEVER!! I’m _not_ like _you_!”

“Yozak, you know that—”, Conrad tried to interrupt him, growing irritated too, but the redhead started shouting covering his voice.

“SHUT. UP!”, he yelled. “You started this: now you’ll listen ‘til the end and _I_ _swear_ I’ll make a pulp outta you if you only _try_ to interrupt me _‘gain_! Was I clear ’nough, or do I have to spell it for you, _husband_?!”, he threw at him, and Conrad heaved an annoyed sigh in response but just nodded and waved a hand in sign he would have obliged and listened in silence: he knew Yozak enough to know that, the moment he arrived to this, it was better to leave him blow off steam.

He was angry, and Yozak’s words made him lose what remained of his temper, but he knew better than arguing _now_ …

“GOOD!”, the spy added before starting again from where he was interrupted. “I was saying: I’m not like you! And _yes_ : I have a _total_ and _blind_ faith in him, a total trust and confidence, but, _unlike you_ , I was faithful to you and to my _conjugal_ _duties_. And, to tell you the truth, it was pretty hard since he arrived, but I _never_ tried anything with him.

He was free, and flirty, and he hit at me _more than once_ before this thing with your brother”, he continued, “but I only _verbally_ flirted with him because it was _fun_ and because _I hoped_ to make YOU _jealous_! Whatta stupid I was, wasn’t I?!”, he started laughing in hysterics. “I actually _hoped_ you would have come back to me! BUT NO! Your eyes were on Heika and Heika alone since he arrived! All the time Heika! You _even_ tried to _steal him_ from _your brother_ and now you have the guts to accuse the sage for his actions because he made Wolfram _cry_?! You’re a fuckin’ _hypocrite_! And you know what? Maybe he ruined his proposal, but, with his ‘over the top reaction’ to your brother’s stupid complaints, he made clear his position and _his feelings_ for him! And you know what else?! _I’m jealous of your brother_ , because, even if he suffered with Heika before, _now_ he found someone who cares for him, who loves him so much that he slapped him on a whim because he was tired of being negated, even though it was only because that stupid and too-much-impulsive brat was _embarrassed_!”, he pointed out. “It’s FORTY-ONE YEARS we’re MARRIED _,_ Conrad _,_ and I NEVER felt like this!”, he retorted crying out loud, fuming, and he had to dry a single, angry tear from his own cheek with his free hand. “I was the one who made _everything_ : I proposed, I made the sacrifices and I suffered ‘cause of you and your cheating with Suzanna Julia before, and your mental craving for Heika, _her reincarnation_ , later! I’M FED UP, CONRAD! _Totally_ , DEVASTATINGLY fed up, and once we’ll be back, I’m totally going to get a divorce! YOU BETCHA!”, he bitterly declared before releasing him from his grip.

“YOZAK! LISTEN!”, Conrad tried to stop him, grabbing him by his wrist, but the redhead turned to him like a tornado.

“LET ME GO, YOU CHEATING ASSHOLE!!”, he shouted, uncaring of being overheard by whoever was around outside their cabin, and he shook off his hand with a brusque movement. Then, when he got free, he just left slamming the door before Conrad could do or even say anything else to stop him.

-&-

“…maybe I had to choose the other cabin…”, Ken broke the sudden silence fallen between him and Yuuri after a couple of minutes and tried to smile at his friend, but he knew he wasn’t going to be totally able to hide the uneasiness he was feeling…

Luckily for him, Yuuri was far more shocked than he was and he didn’t notice his uneasiness, but Yuuri’s uncomfortable state of mind made the demon king glare at the sage with a scolding look for the nature of his uncalled-for comment.

“Ok, ok! Don’t get angry at me, Shibuya! At least _this_ is not my fault! I’m uneasy as much as you are this instant…”, he admitted.

“…maybe you’re right…”, Yuuri replied with a sigh after a moment. Then, after another long pause, in a pretty feeble voice, still visibly shaken by Yozak’s words to whom they just discovered being his husband of forty-one years, he dared ask: “Do you think it’s true?”

Ken heavily sighed and avoided his eyes for a second before going back to watch at him, knowing _exactly_ what he was referring to.

“I fear it is…”, he admitted in a grave tone when he felt he was finally ready to answer his question calmly. “Sad to say in a moment like this, but I trust Yozak’s judgment, and I _knew_ something was wrong with sir Weller all these years, but I must admit that, until now, I thought it was _mostly_ Wolfram being overly paranoid around you… sadly it seems even worse than I expected it to be…”, he added, deciding not to be _too much specific_ about his doubts of the last years about Conrad’s intentions around him and he heaved another sigh.

“ _Seriously_?!”, Yuuri exclaimed in total disbelief, growing guiltier by the second, his eyes round and his breath broken in panic and in guilt-feelings.

“If you want I can speak to them in order to clarify both their point of view and discern what is really true from what, on the contrary, was just the fruit of stifled anger… you don’t have to if you don’t feel like it, Yuuri: you’re still in shock with that… I _definitely_ can handle it, if you want!”, Ken suggested after a brief look at him. He didn’t want to talk to Conrad, in truth, but he could make it for his friend’s sake. “Wolfram will have to wait… but I’ll fix everything, I promise. You can stay here and try to relax a little and recover from the shock…”

“No…”, Yuuri stopped him the moment Ken reached the door and a hand was already on the handle. “ _I_ ’ll speak to Conrad. I have to clarify this mess. For Yozak… and for Wolfram too. I owe them at least this much, because it’s my fault too, given that I never noticed the meaning of Conrad’s behavior towards me… I made people suffer and I deserve to listen and understand: it’s time I take my responsibilities, Ken. But thank you.”, he sighed and got next to Murata attempting a smile but miserably failing, ready to go out with him, and his friend posed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed quite hard, offering, with the gesture, his silent but total support to him for his decision.

“Then I’ll go find Yozak.”, Ken replied, deeply relieved despite everything, and, after the nth sigh, they exited their stateroom together for their ‘new thorny mission’.

-&-

Yuuri knocked at the door next to his cabin but received no answer.

He breathed in and out a couple of times trying to calm down a little and looked at Ken’s back while his friend walked through the hallway and up the stairs in search of Yozak.

He knocked again once he was alone in the passageway and an angered yell ordered whoever was on the other side of the door to just go away and leave him alone.

Yuuri hesitated for a brief moment, startled by the tone and the harsh words: Conrad was always so calm and steady that he found himself a little off guard by the not-at-all-calm-and-steady answer he received.

“Conrad…”, he replied and slowly pulled down on the handle. “May I come in?”, he peeked out from behind the door, his eyes concerned.

“ _Your majesty!_ ”, the brunet exclaimed not expecting to see him there and he jumped on his feet. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was you behind the door or else I would have never answ—”, Conrad started in one breath but Yuuri silenced him with a wave of his hand.

“Please, Conrad: sit back again.”, Yuuri dryly replied after closing the door behind himself and then, when his godfather reluctantly obeyed, he went to sit on the bed in front of him in order to watch him in the eyes during their soon-to-come conversation Conrad definitely owed him.

The Captain’s glance started to wonder around the room, unusually unable to dissimulate his uneasiness, and not at all helped by the fact that, this time, Yuuri’s eyes didn’t softened.

“Is it true?”, the demon king only asked, breaking the heavy silence that fell upon them and Conrad’s eyes, distressed, fixed in Yuuri’s ones for a long instant before starting roaming around the room again.

Then, uncertain on how to reply to his godson’s question, Conrad just stood up and went to the porthole.

He watched outside at the land getting away and slowly graying and fading off the horizon.

He heaved a sigh and closed his eyes, his always straight shoulders uncharacteristically curved with resignation.

“I suppose I should say yes…”, he admitted in a flat tone after a moment that seemed an eternity.

“Everything? _Really?!_ ”, open disappointment in Yuuri’s voice to which Conrad didn’t reply.

After all, how could he ever reply to this?

“I can’t believe it’s true, Conrad! It _can’t_ be true! Yozak accused you of staying by my side not because of _me_ but because you saw and still see me as _Julia_ , and, _worse_ , he accused you of trying to steal me away _from your own brother_ , and despite you are a _married_ _man_!! _Was your concern and friendship all a lie?!_ Did you really have an ulterior motive for staying by my side?!”

“It’s complicated…”, Conrad stated after another sigh, but being cornered soon started to loosen his tongue. “Life is complicated. Feelings are complicated. Relationships are complicated. _Love_ is complicated, Yuuri! I am one-hundred-twenty-one years old, I’m a half-blood, not a demon and not a human, despised by both sides and without a real place, I lived through a war in spite of many others who died, I loved and I suffered! Life is long for us half-mazoku and mazoku. Very, _very_ long!”, he bitterly pointed out, but Yuuri’s eyes remained icy.

“And in the meanwhile you got married and _no one_ knows about it, neither your brothers nor your mother! _How’s that_?!”, Yuuri retorted, unusually angry and rancorous towards him. “Your life didn’t differ so much from the one of Shin Makoku’s people, from your brothers’, or your mother’s, or Gunter’s, Anissina’s, Yozak’s – _your husband_ – and oh-so-many other people’s! What’s so strange? It’s _life_! You’re alive, your husband is alive and Suzanna Julia is _dead_! Sad but true, Conrad! I’m not Julia: I’m Yuuri, Shibuya Yuuri! And you are an idiot – no offence – because you ruined your marriage with your own hands although you had _and still have_ a magnificent husband, faithful to you and who loved – and maybe still loves – you! How could you treat Yozak of all people so bad?!”, the demon king reprimanded him and Conrad just snorted and shook his head in response.

“As I already said, Yuuri, it’s complicated, and, to tell you the truth, I don’t feel like being scolded by anybody, and that includes you. So, if possible, I would really appreciate if you might decide to just leave.”, he resentfully but heart-brokenly replied and Yuuri needed a couple of minutes in order to regain at least part of his composure because he was unusually pretty near to just slam the door behind himself and leave him wallow in self-pity.

“Conrad, I’m deeply disappointed in you.”, Yuuri stated, serious, breaking the long and heavy silence that fell between them. “But I won’t go anywhere before we talk.”

“Please: I don’t feel like talking now. And also: what do you want to talk about?”

“I want to understand and I want to find a solution to this problem.”, Yuuri declared.

The Captain snapped.

“Heika”, Conrad then started again, trying a more detached approach. “It’s almost thirty years I’m trying to ‘find a solution to this problem’ ”, he cited Yuuri’s exact words in a sarcastic tone, “but, after so long and so many vain attempts, I came to the conclusion there is _none_. And, also, I’m tired as much as he is. I tried _everything_ , and _nothing_ worked in the long term.”

“If what he said is really true”, Yuuri retorted, “in other words that you hoped in something more from _me_ despite your own brother’s position and _your own_ position of a married man, it’s easy to understand _why_ nothing worked in the long term, Conrad.”, he pinpointed accusingly and his godfather could reply nothing to this, so the demon king continued.             
“Conrad: I won’t ask you if you ever really loved him, but do you love him _now_ , anger aside? Would you like to save your marriage?”, Yuuri asked him still a little harshly and Conrad widened his eyes to the sudden and pretty unkind question. “It’s true what you said before…”, Yuuri went on at his silence, his tone then growing softer and comforting. “Life is long for half-mazoku and mazoku.”, he quoted Conrad’s words. “And it’s harder, maybe. And certainly it’s slower. A human who grows old never reaches your actual age, but he does everything you mazoku and half-mazoku do. We humans are born, grow up, fall in love, get married and maybe have children and grand-children and then die and see who we love die too. We suffer, but we live joyful moments too. The same as you do with your longer lives. Conrad: you can fight for what you want, for what your heart desires, and your life is still long above you, Fates permitting! Do you really want to live on of regrets?”

Conrad snorted and then started to laugh without amusement and went on for a few minutes; and Yuuri froze, startled by the uncharacteristic reaction of the man in front of him.

“I live of regrets since my father died eighty-two years ago and, after that, I just accumulated.”, he then replied, growing serious in a blink of an eye.

“You can’t understand, _Yuuri_.”, he marked on his name and then approached him slowly, but something in his eyes was terribly wrong, to the point that the king raised up from the edge of the bed where he was sitting and moved away from him.

“…Conrad…what…”

“Do you want to know which is my biggest regret?”, he interrupted him, his tone suddenly amused for no clear reason and Yuuri flinched and stepped further away while Conrad predatorily stepped closer.

“Conrad, I’m not sure I…”

“ _Yuuri_ ”, he almost purred and the young double black shivered and swallowed hard and stepped back, but too soon ended against the wall. “You seemed so willing, a moment ago, to lighten my conscience of my many regrets…”

“Conrad, please… don’t act like that! I almost can’t recognize you… just _stop_ joking aroun—MMMHH!! WHA—WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?!”, he yelled and shoved him away still in shock before wiping roughly his mouth with his sleeve, his eyes wide in disbelief. “ _HOW DARE YOU!!_ ”, then the Maoh in him threateningly raised on the surface more than it happened in the last few months, and Conrad, realizing maybe only then what happened and what he actually dared do, just bowed down before the frightening aura of the Maoh in a reflex, but said nothing in his own defense.

“YOU IMPUDENT!”, Yuuri roared in a disappointment and rage so not typical of his own. “And after I went out of my way just in order to _help_ you! You should treasure what you possess, and not aim at something you can not have! With your deplorable behavior you overstepped the limit and you just proved that you have _far more_ than you deserve! YOU DESERVE NOT YOZAK!!”, the Maoh declaimed and, livid, made to go, but Conrad stopped him grabbing his wrist.

“I’m sorr—”

“ _Let go of me this instant!_ ”, Yuuri sharply ordered and Conrad obeyed right away.

“Now, stay out of my sight! I will decide which will be your punishment for your impudence and for your disgraceful conduct towards my beloved subjects and me! Until then, dare not cross my path. And once reached Caloria, I will decide if you will go back to Shin Makoku or continue the mission with us.”

“ _Heika—”_

“SILENCE!”, Yuuri shouted and left slamming the door behind himself only to go back to his cabin to wait for Murata to come back with his report about Yozak.

He also thought about going to Wolfram and gaining Ken a little bit of time given the ‘difficulties’ which suddenly appeared and made his friend delay his ‘little chat’ with the blond, but he was too upset to do that, so he just went next door and laid down on his bed to cool off.

-&-

Meanwhile Ken, before going to look for the redhead spy, decided to pay a visit to the galley.

“Excuse me, sir. No passengers are allowed in here…”, Ken was kindly stopped by a sailor about his age but twice his size.

The Daikenja brightly smiled at him and gently grabbed one of the young man’s hands while searching, with his other one, into his own pocket.

“I promise I won’t steal anything. Also: this is for you”, and he put a silver piece in the sailor’s hand, “for your discretion and for your trouble in calling here the cook for me…”, he implied. “By the way: what’s your name?”

“Sebastian…”, the giant youngster replied and watched at his hand to check the content. Then, satisfied enough, he nodded, smiled back, and ran to look for the cook, who was neither in the galley nor in the pantry where he was supposed to be.

In the wait Ken decided to go and have a look around.

The last time he visited a galley was many lives ago, and he observed there weren’t big differences between earth’s pirate’s and merchant’s old ships and this world’s ones.

He got in front of the pantry and, oddly, he found the door open, the key still in the keyhole – sign that the cook wasn’t too far from there.

He checked inside but no trace of the man.

Curious, he went inside and used his time waiting to check for the alcohol the ship had at disposal.

“WHO ARE YOU?! NONE IS ALLOWED INSIDE HERE!! GET OUT IMMEDIATELY!!”, a harsh voice shouted behind him after less than a minute he was there.

“…SIR! SIR!! HE ISN’T A ROBBER! HE SENT ME TO LOOK FOR YOU!”, Sebastian, called back by the sudden yelling, ran in Ken’s support.

The older and smellier man turned to the young sailor and then back to the intruder, a raised skeptical eyebrow.

“Or maybe he tried to dispose of you in order to come inside here and steal something! You’re just a sap, Sebby!”, he replied knowingly.

“But sir, he—”

“ _Shut up, you dim!_ And now go back to work and don’t slack off!”, he ordered the young sailor and Sebastian just ran away after a short bow to Ken. “And _you_ ”, he then referred to the undercover sage. “Get out!! NOW!!”

“I swear I’m here in peace, sir.”, Ken stated calmly at this point and, from the other pocket from before, he took a _gold_ piece and showed it to the man. “I just need a couple of bottles of something _strong_ ”, he specified, marking on the last word. “I need to comfort a woman – well, my aunt and soon-to-be mother-in-law to be more precise – who just argued really hard with my uncle, and I need to comfort myself too after the mess I made with my fiancée a while ago… won’t you be so kind to recommend me _the strongest_ thing you have on the ship, please? I would _really_ appreciate it…”, he half-smiled at him and the man snapped.

“So you’re the rascal I heard of before!”, he reprimanded him and, Ken had to admit it, he was taken off guard by the comment. And the mere fact the man didn’t stop there shocked him even more… “The poor young lady is crying on the main deck ‘cause of you! And she suffers the sea too! You should go see her and ask for her forgiveness instead of going to see _her mother_! At least she’s a grown woman unlike her daughter!! Listen to me, boy! It’s better leaving the grown-ups’ problems to the grown-ups. You better say sorry to the young lady first thing first!! Believe me!”

Ken cracked up.

“ _Oh man!_ I like you!!”, he claimed still doubled up with laughter after a couple of minutes he wasn’t actually able to formulate a short sentence without choking.

“Then, kid, you better go see your fiancée! You already lost too much time here chit-chatting!”

It took Ken another full minute to calm down enough to stop laughing and then he sighed.

“You know, man… you sure would have a point in _normal_ circumstances, and I surely crossed the line a little with my _lady_ , but I can assure you that, despite me having been an impulsive fool a while ago, it’s not so bad as it seems with my too-much proud and hot-tempered fiancée…

You don’t know her”, he clarified, “but I can tell you that she sure needs to learn her place sometimes and, even if I must admit I exaggerated before, I assure you she can wait a bit longer and, maybe, meditate on her mistakes in the meanwhile… on the contrary”, he explained, “on the other side my aunt needs someone to talk to _right now_. You know, she is a very _strong_ woman, but my uncle can be a real jerk sometimes and I know for certain she would appreciate to drink herself to oblivion right now, and the sooner, the better… So, please, forgive me if I won’t follow your prompt, even if it was a considerate suggestion, but I _definitely_ know what I’m doing. Therefore…”, he continued and approached him offering him again the coin he still had in his hand. “May I have two bottles of your strongest liquor, please?”

Then the man sighed and got past Ken, took out two bottles from the shelves behind him and gave them to him, but he didn’t take the money.

“I hope, for your sake, you won’t screw up with your judgment… I talked a bit with your lady before and what I saw in her eyes didn’t seem just a shuttered pride…”

“ _Really_?”, Ken suddenly exclaimed totally surprised. “Did she really _talk_ to you before? And not _insulted_ you for your meddling?”

“…yes… is it so strange?”, he asked a bit startled by his astonishment.

“ _Man_ , you sure have hidden talents here!”, Ken shortly laughed. “Tell me: do you like your job or do you aim for something more? Because I would really like to hire you…”, he suddenly told him and the older man’s eyebrow twitched up in a reflex.

“Well… I can’t say I don’t like my job, but what would your proposal be, young man? …you certainly can never say what’s better until you know _all_ of your chances standing in front of you!”, then the cook openly smiled at him, curious to listen to the youngster’s offer and still surprised by the sudden change of register.

“I’m pretty sure you’d make a good spy…”, Ken suggested and the man raised the same eyebrow as before, stunned for just a second, asking himself whom the heck he was talking to right now.

“Too risky, sorry.”, he promptly stated, still studying the young man in front of him, perplexed.

“…said the sailor man who lives on a ship, at the mercy of the sea and of its caprice…”, Ken smirked at him and the man blatantly laughed.

“You’ve got me, youngster! But I prefer my actual job, thanks!”

Ken sighed and smiled at him, fully understanding.

“…well, I must admit that, if I were you, I’m pretty sure I would have replied the same… maybe that’s why I like you! By the way: what’s your name?”, he swiftly changed topic.

“Alistair Crane. And yours, if may I ask?”

“Ken would be enough, Alistair. And you know what? I guess I’ll briefly go see how’s my fiancée before everything else… you had me convinced, man!”, then he winked, patted him on the shoulder and put the gold piece in the cook’s pocket: “By the way: thank you for the little chat!”

“You’re welcome, boy!”, the man now openly smiled back and giggled while patting him on the shoulder in return. Then he watched Ken go, shaking his head.

 _What a peculiar youth_ , he thought and grinned to the open door of the pantry.

 

…and Ken did as he said he would have done…

 

He approached the ‘brunette lady’ on the main deck, doubled over the balustrade, and he leaned against the edge of it with his hands between the wooden railing and his back, underpinning himself.

“Hey…”, he called, looking straight in front of him and _not_ at Wolfram.

“Go away…”, the blond pouted and, startled by Ken’s sudden appearance next to him without him even noticing, he quickly dried off his swollen eyes with the back of his hand, hoping and praying that Ken wouldn’t notice he was crying until then… But his beloved’s words made his obvious lack of stealth abilities for everything concerning emotions a clear enough circumstance…

“I’m sorry…I exaggerated…”, the sage admitted, still not looking at him, but this time Wolfram turned his head towards him and gazed at him in silence, waiting for Ken to finally turn and look into his eyes too.

“Yes, you did.”, the blond confirmed in a flat and calm even if a little resentful tone the moment their eyes met.

And Ken almost imperceptibly shook his head and lightly sighed, totally disarmed.

He felt like he always was a step behind him, but Wolfram didn’t necessarily need to know it right away…

He didn’t need to know how much power he actually had towards him!

…even if the sage was quite sure that, in his pure heart, Wolfram already knew it.

“You too, you know?”, Ken replied snickering, and then it was Wolfram’s turn to half-smile at him in resignation.

“Maybe you are right… but I told you I would have thought about it, and you obliged.”, then, after a brief pause, in a bit severer tone than he actually intended to, he stated a harsh truth: “You lied.”

And Ken couldn’t complain about it, because, actually, Wolfram was right.

“I know apologetic words are certainly not enough, but for that _I_ _am_ sorry, Wolfram.”, he sincerely uttered and, at that very moment, he changed his mind about making him know about how he felt towards him and decided to confess him the truth about his feelings.

“You know…”, he started with a sigh, searching for the right words, and it wasn’t an easy task to accomplish, but at the end Ken said: “It seems that, towards you, I actually am less patient and cool than I thought I could be and, also, than I thought I was…”

Then, after a long pause during which Wolfram remained silent sensing the sage still hadn’t finished, Ken took a deep breath and asked him what he feared the most.

“Do you want me to take it back?”

And Wolfram’s eyes widened in bewilderment, that grew to horror in an instant.

“DON’T YOU DARE!”, he shouted in a strangled yell and he started panting, for the first time in pure terror of losing him. Then his head went fuzzy and he lost to a new wave of heaves which shook him from head to toes.

And in response Ken burst out laughing, his heart suddenly lighter.

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU LAUGHING AT?!”, Wolfram protested in a pout, abruptly turning to him, but the sudden movement didn’t help his stomach to stay put and he quickly had to lean back out the balustrade…sight that made Ken chortle.

“ _Curse you!_ ”, Wolfram spouted harshly, this time not to his face but to the sea, and then threw up again. “I _hate_ you!”, he piled it on a moment later, but it appeared as it was still too soon to speak, because the nth heave prevailed over him.

“Hush”, Ken gently hissed and, finally stopping laughing, he smoothly started rubbing his beloved’s back down in circles and sighed in relief.

“…I love you too, my lion.”, he sweetly replied using one of his – and, secretly, Wolfram’s too – favorite pet-names, and kissed him on his exposed shoulder, making his lover flinch at the swift contact of his lips against his own bare skin. Then Wolfram’s legs suddenly yielded and a light unintelligible whimper slipped out his lips.

And, when the sage’s arms strongly braced him for backstopping him from falling, Wolfram wasn’t able to prevent himself from pleadingly moan his lover’s name, literally obligating Ken to vividly fight against himself and the spur of the moment that almost got the better of him.

“Sweetheart… I really love you and I desire you, _no_!”, he quickly corrected himself lightly panting, his voice a peculiarly shaken and raspy whispering into Wolfram’s ear that made the blond visibly shiver in Ken’s arms, “I _yearn_ for you with _every._ _Inch._ of my soul and body, but, sadly, now is _not_ a good moment…”

Wolfram, baffled, turned at him with a questioning glance and Ken pointed at the two bottles laying on the floor at their feet, momentarily unable to speak.

Then, after a deep breath to cool off enough, he just said: “It’s a bit of a long story, but I promise I will explain you everything later… in short, I need to talk to Yozak as soon as possible…”

“Did he and my brother argue again?”, Wolfram asked sighing and Ken sighed back and, for a moment, he called himself stupid for even only _thinking_ the blond wouldn’t be able to guess right about what happened. But he decided to blame his actual flustered state of mind for that.

“Sadly, yes, but…”, the sage hesitated and Wolfram gazed at him, a flinched eyebrow raised in response to his uncharacteristic pause.

“What? Tell me.”, he solicited, and Ken sighed again but still didn’t answer back.

“Ken, _please_. Conrad is my brother. What happened this time that makes it so different from their usual quarrels?”, he insisted, piercing eyes demanding for an explanation.

Eyes to which Ken knew all too well he could deny nothing at all.

“Wolfram… what do you know about your brother’s relationship with Yozak?”, he asked him out of the blue and the one who just accepted to be his fiancé glanced at him, now openly puzzled.

“Not very much, in truth… why? What should I know?”

Ken heaved a sigh and shortly averted his eyes before going back to watch at him.

“Before, in our stateroom, Shibuya and I happened to overhear them argue next door…”

“And…?”, Wolfram offered after Ken’s unusual _and protracted_ reluctance in going on.

The sage took a deep breath before informing him: “It seems they are married… and their marriage is on the rocks…”

“WHAT?!”, Wolfram shouted in total astonishment, his eyes round and his mouth wide open. “SINCE WHEN?!”

“Ehm… forty-one years ago, it seems…”, he admitted ruefully and another “WHAT?!” that made a few people around them turn filled the air.

“…right now Shibuya is surely talking to your brother”, Ken continued, trying to divert attention from themselves, “and I promised him that I would have followed Yozak and talked to him right away…”

A long silence, then, fell upon them.

“…but you are here now…”, Wolfram pointed out after a couple of minutes during which he peered at the sage with studying eyes and finally half smiled at his lover.

And “Yes” was all Ken said and smiled back at him with a short puff.

“…thank you…”, Wolfram unexpectedly replied in a wistful voice, but soon after that, he went back to his ‘normal self’ and exhorted him to go do what he had to. “By the way, if I know him well enough,”, he added in a little bit softer tone than usual, “he should be on the forecastle deck.”, the cross-dressed blond cut short and then made to turn to the sea again, brooding about the astounding and totally unexpected news about his brother, but Ken forestalled him from doing so and, instead, he cupped his face between his hands and, forcing him to turn back again and watch at him in the eyes, he fiercely kissed him on the mouth.

“Wh— _stupid_!”, Wolfram strongly complained while trying – and miserably failing – to shove him away. “I was puking just a moment ago!”

“I can’t care less about a similar _triviality_!”, Ken shortly replied and then squeezed his face harder and roughly forced him in another deep kiss.

And Wolfram, this time, could only surrender and, in the end, he responded to the buss and kissed him back with Ken’s same rush and hunger and heat guiding him…but he eventually was also the one who pushed him away once more.

“…and now just go to Yozak, you perverted sage! You promised Yuuri!”, he panted heavily, his words far more logical than his body revealed it was, and, both his hands on Ken’s shoulders, he turned him of one hundred eighty degrees and pushed him away.

“ _Hai! Hai!_ _Understood_!”, Ken was finally forced to oblige and, rolling his eyes, once picked the two bottles up again, he went to look for Yozak and he found him exactly where Wolfram suggested that he would have been able to find the redhead spy – and, if what Ken overheard was actually true, his fiancé’s (and his own future) brother-in-law…

-&-

“Could you please leave and, as much as possible, make sure no one disturbs us?”, Ken asked in a low voice to the only sailor actually on the forecastle at the moment, handing him over a silver piece and silently praying that, at least for the travel, it would be _the last time_ he needed to hand over _his_ _own_ money in exchange for favors.

The middle-aged man watched at the youngster and then at the attractive redheaded woman actually seated on the ground, her legs crossed in a not-so-feminine way and her back leaning against one of the feet of the capstan.

“Ehm… well… I’ll do what I can ‘bout it…”, the man replied and Ken brightly smiled at him in his typical enigmatic way and thanked him.

Then, once left alone, he approached the cross-dressed man a few meters above and, without a single word, he just took a seat a few meters from him and laid against the other wooden foot of the winch, setting the two bottles of liquor down between them.

“…you shouldn’t use all your money during the first day of our journey and for _me_ now that you finally found someone you really care for…”, Yozak suggested after a long calm silence, tittering to the sea.

Ken lightly chuckled in response.

“Don’t worry: I’ll be sure to ask for a refund once back!”, he smiled at the sea too, deciding it still wasn’t the right moment for them to meet their eyes.

“And whom would you ask to? Knowing him, I’m quite sure the General won’t grant it to you…”, Yozak chortled and then sighed.

At that, Ken finally turned to the man whom he learned to consider a friend over the years.

“You know… I have a pretty good idea about that…”, he insinuated in a suddenly serious voice and his comment – together with his tone – bought all Yozak’s attention.

The man turned to the sage and watched him straight in the eye but said nothing. Then, after a long moment, he uncorked one of the bottles and took a few deep slugs.

Ken made the same.

“Yes, I happened to overhear your wrangle with him. Sorry: it wasn’t intentional.”, the sage apologized.

Yozak snorted and shook his head sighing and shrugging before starting snickering in hysterics.

“Then, given that Heika followed you before, I gather that now he knows too…”

Ken nodded and the spy’s snickering became a cackle.

“Fuckin’ hypocrite bastard! He’s with _my husband_ now, right?!”, he roared out of the blue and punched the floor, pure hatred uncharacteristically mixed with jealousy in his words and voice.

“ _YOZAK!_ ”, Ken reprimanded him in a harsh tone, but that only made the redhead man shake his head harder and sigh heavier. “Shibuya is not a threat, Yozak. Or, at least, he isn’t it _in himself_. Believe me.”, Ken insisted, serious, but Yozak only skeptically laughed and continued to shake his head.

“Sorry, but this time I can’t agree with you. Tell me, sage: have you ever happened to watch at them while alone together, or to listen to their private chats?”, he implied.

“Yozak, listen. You read too much into it. I can assure you that Yuuri doesn’t see him in that way.”

“ _For now!_ But, now that he’s free again, I’m sure he’ll soon change his mind too and they’ll finally have their yearned happy-ending! The happy-ending they couldn’t have before!”

“Yozak, Sir Weller is _your husband_. So, even if what you suggested were true – _and it isn’t_ – , Shibuya would never steal him from you. I know him. And you know him too. You know he would _never_ do something like that!”

Yozak couldn’t stop shaking his head in disagreement.

“No, sage. You don’t understand. You don’t know the truth… you weren’t there when Suzanna Julia was alive. And you weren’t there when she died. _You can’t understand_ …”, he ended his statement in a broken voice and he averted his eyes from Ken’s ones, only to put his now blind gaze on the graying horizon.

“Yozak: you talk _rubbish_! _You_ are the one who knows nothing.”, Ken harshly scolded him and now it was his turn to shake his head in dissent.

“Let’s listen what’s this thing I don’t know, then, sage! _I’m all ears!!_ ”, he suddenly snapped and swallowed another big slug of nourishing liquid, angrier than ever.

Ken heaved a sigh, exasperated, and bit the inside of his lower lip while sighing a second time.

He was torn about whether to tell him the truth about Yuuri or not.

He sighed again, but, at the end, he made his decision.

“Would you like to listen to a story?”, Ken proposed him out of the blue and Yozak raised a quizzical eyebrow in response, but that seemed to be a good enough reply for the sage who had already cleared his mind about what to do: so Ken cleared his throat and started his narration after a deep gulp of alcohol that corroborated his esophagus and apparently gave him enough strength to start.

“Once upon a time there was a man, the son of a strong and unmerciful Mazoku king and a half-Shinzoku, his second wife.

He was the only child of the woman, but the man, actually, had another legitimate child from his first marriage, and, as if it wasn’t enough, since he was young he was always weak to the pleasure of the flesh, so, during his long life, he also happened to leave many other fruits of his illicit passions all around the world.

The young prince grew up powerful and beautiful, and since he was just a child, his father knew he would have been destined to do something great… to _shine_ above all others.

He wanted to make of him his sole heir, but the law didn’t allow him to do so. Thus he decided to establish as award for the ‘last one of his sons’ to succeed him on the throne, and, to make it absolute to his subjects’ eyes, he made of this feat a public issue.

Therefore, the prince and his half-brother left the castle, the first heading west and the second east, and they rode, each one with their own retinue, around the world and across the reigns their father straddled before them, in search for their bastard brothers, in order to exterminate them all before going back to their father for the last battle against each other.”

Ken made a pause and took a deep breath before going on.

It was hard for him… even harder than he thought it could be, actually.

“One day, during their journey, this prince received words, from one of his men, of the presence of one of his father’s sons in a small reign called Astartia, which seemed to be concealed inside a big wood in which people living around there never entered for fear of being cursed.

So, intrigued by the mystery around this land and its peculiar inhabitants, the prince, _totally irrationally_ , sent his guard in search for reports about some _other_ half-brothers, while he took the trouble of investigating – and solve – this specific case _alone_.

The plan was to meet again with them in two weeks by the hostelry in a small village not so far from the other side of the forest.

Thus, when he finally convinced his guard to depart and just leave him there – and each man headed in a different direction –, the prince, now alone, entered the wood on his white horse, thrilled by adventure.

He cantered through the bushy trees and undergrowth until sunset, when, at last, he found a big clearing where a fortified castle rose up out of nowhere.

North, right out of the walls, there was a big tree, different from the ones around there, and under this tree there was a young man around the prince’s age, only a few years younger than he was…”

Ken heaved a sigh and closed his eyes for a second before opening them again and going on with his tale.

And Yozak just listened in silence, waiting for him to continue, now totally captivated by the story and slowly grown oblivious of his own troubles without even noticing.

It was the sage’s power with words.

“He was seated on a jutting root”, he went on, “too much focused on the book he was reading to notice that someone – and _a stranger_ above all – had approached him.

He jerked a little when a big shadow outshined the pages in front of him and, the moment he raised his eyes to complain to the one he was _sure_  that was his little half -brother, sent to call him back inside for dinner like almost every evening, the tome fell from his shaky hands and he jumped up and stepped back from the ‘shiny man’ a few meters forward of him, totally out of breath.

Then he watched the foreigner dismount from his horse, collect his book and draw nigh in order to give it back to him, all this with a broad grin literally splitting his face in half.

‘ _You sure have bad taste about your readings… how old are you? Five-hundred?_ ’, the foreigner prince teased him in his haughty attitude and the younger man grabbed his tome out of the stranger’s hand and unceremoniously took it back.

‘ _It’s none of your business!_ ’, he snapped at him while he felt his face grow warmer, but the foreigner smiled at him more widely than before and asked him for his name.

‘ _And tell me why should I tell you, you obnoxious busybody!_ ’ ”.

Ken chuckled lightly, but he soon clouded over a little.

“ ‘ _No reason…_ ’, the shiny prince had replied. ‘ _By the way, you are way too beautiful to decide to spend all your time over these tedious books! I can’t believe your partner never complains about it!_ ’, he needled him, because he knew by a mere glance that the creature in front of him was never touched by anybody before.

But the younger man didn’t know, and his face burned with embarrassment at the stranger’s innuendo.”

Ken made another short pause, and his voice lowered by a tone, his eyes blind and lost in the games of light that the sunrays played against the ruffled reflecting surface.

“…and the allusions went on for a few minutes, until the Astartian young _and_ _still innocent_ man found himself pinned against the log with the shiny stranger’s lips over his own’s and the man’s fingers intertwined with his long hair before he knew what was actually happening.”

The sage swallowed hard, his breath suddenly quick and short and his throat parched, and he sighed and abruptly felt the need to take another big slug of liquor before going on.

So he obliged his urge.

“Then the night was coming”, Ken continued, “and the sky was getting darker by the second. So the unwary young man asked the stranger to follow him inside the walls for the night.

He told him he was the prince of Astartia, and he revealed his name to the shiny foreigner.

Then, he took his hand in his own and guided him inside the walls and then inside his castle, under the astonished and disapproving eyes of his people, not used to see, let alone accept, who was different from them.

But, in spite of the fact that he actually could understand _why_ his subjects were skeptic about the stranger, he could also tell the substantial difference between _that_ man and all the others he had happened to meet before him. So he totally ignored his people’s and even _his mother’s_ dissenting looks and complaints and offered him food, wine and a bed… _his_ bed.”, Ken specified in a feeble voice and shut his eyes while sighing.

Then he continued, even if the task he decided to undertook was growing harder and harder every minute, every _instant_.

“And what had to be only a night became a week in a blink of an eye.

No one approved of the blond stranger staying, but the prince didn’t care: he loved him and he trusted him.

Then, eventually, the night of the seventh day since the nameless traveler showed up outside the walls, the Astartian prince asked him to stay forever by his side and to become his consort.

And the shiny stranger accepted, but on one condition.

‘ _Tomorrow I will leave in search of a gift up to you and I promise I’ll be back within midnight of the sixth day, but you have to promise me that seven days from now we will celebrate our union, the morning after my return. And I want you to organize everything._ ’

It was his request, and how could the prince ever say no? Seven days and he would have been the happiest man in the world!”

Ken snickered to the young man’s naiveté.

“Did he show up at the end?”, Yozak unexpectedly intervened and the sage, who almost forgot that he wasn’t alone, suddenly snapped out of the stream of his narration and jolted a little.

“YES!”, he chortled to the sea. “He’d always been a man of his word. That’s why so many people followed and trusted him.”, he explained.

By the way, it wasn’t as if Ken needed to add this remark for Yozak to understand that, until now, the sage was actually talking about Shinou and himself…

“So, exactly two weeks since their first meeting, the two princes celebrated their union to all Astartians’ presence and, despite everyone was against it in their hearts, they also had to admit that they’d never seen their prince so happy before then.

So everybody celebrated from morning until late at night, while the new couple retired to their room to consummate not long before midnight.”

The sage abruptly stopped and his breath grew uneven, so much so that Yozak thought for a moment he wouldn’t have been able to go on.

But Ken got up enough strength to continue with his narration from another slug of liquor.

“But the evening later, around sunset, the Astartian prince woke up at the sound of a horse’s clogs approaching.

He was seated under a big tree – the same big tree of his first encounter with the shiny stranger, even if he didn’t remember of the man – with a book about war strategy in his hands.

And he never knew what happened exactly to his family, his reign and his subjects, because when he woke up he was sure he was _the_ _only_ inhabitant of the castle since he could remember.

He looked up from the open book resting on his lap to the white horse and his cavalier, and he couldn’t take his eyes off the figure who, meanwhile, nimbly got off his mount and was now standing there in front of him.

‘ _What is your purpose in entering my lands? And aren’t you afraid of me?_ ’, he asked the stranger, more inquisitive than angry, because it was a rare occurrence to actually see a living soul around there, but the shiny man _laughed_ at his suggestion, which, the prince had to admit it to himself, actually startled him very much.

‘ _And why should I?_ ’, the newcomer only replied and the Astartian young man couldn’t refrain from snorting.

‘ _Oh, I don’t know!_ ’, he answered back. ‘ _Maybe because I’m a cursed Soukoku?_ ’

And the shiny young man in front of him just laughed _again_ , even harder than before.

‘ _I can see you are a Soukoku,_ ’, he then added in his arrogant tone,‘ _but I assure you that you are far too beautiful to really be a cursed man. Unless beauty could be actually considered a curse in itself. In which case, yes, I agree with you: you are awfully cursed._ ’ ”

Ken snorted and shook his head. Then he loudly sighed.

“As far as he could remember, it was the first time someone praised him for his appearance – or for everything else, in truth –, and, even if it actually wasn’t the first time, the radiant stranger before him really was the first man that wasn't a Soukoku who did it. And that man’s words stirred something totally new in him.”, Ken shortly commented before going on.

“ ‘ _By the way, nothing good will come of associating with me…_ ’, he tried to keep his distance from the stranger, but the other man had no intention of giving up.

‘ _Besides, I came for you. You are a tactician, aren’t you?_ ’, he asked him, and the Double Black prince raised an eyebrow, perplexed and intrigued.

‘ _And how do you know about that?_ ’, he suspiciously replied, but an ‘ _I have my sources!_ ’ was all he ever got from him about that specific issue and nothing more.

‘ _Please!_ ’, then the sparkling foreigner begged him with strange enthusiasm, ‘ _Use your rare knowledge and wisdom in my service!_ ’

‘ _For what purpose?_ ’, the local prince then tried to study the man in front of him.

By the way, while asking that, he had already decided that, if the stranger’s answer was satisfying enough for him, he would have left his deserted castle and followed him.

And what he got in response was even a better answer than the best option he figured out in his mind, and, at that very moment, he decided that he would have followed that shiny creature to the ends of the earth.”

Ken took a long pause during which he fixed his eyes in Yozak’s with a certain defiance and then smirked at the redhead man in front of him.

“Now, Yozak,”, finally the sage addressed to him, “tell me if I’m wrong, but I’m quite sure that you already heard these exact words at least _once_ before now.”

At his tense silence, Ken uttered: “ ‘ _Let’s make a world where, some day, without regard to wither they’re human or Mazoku or Soukoku like you, people can live in happiness._ ’ ”.

“WHAT?!”, Yozak yelled, totally incredulous by what his ears just ended to hear. “BUT HOW IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE?!”. Then he lowered his voice just a little before going on, and it was all that he could do about it: his astonishment was far too devastatingly big to be able to use more discretion than that at the moment. “Shinou’s soul was in the temple for more than four-thousand years and now he has something like a body too! It can’t be it, right?! I’m sure I guessed wrong somewhere during your telling the story…”, he suggested, but Ken just shook his head.

“Now, tell me, Yozak: do you understand?”, the sage asked his friend, but the man didn’t reply, still too shocked by the revelation.

So Ken just put to use the newly fallen silence and, so to be sure the spy really realized the meaning of the story he decided to tell him, he added: “Shibuya Yuuri actually _is_ Suzanna Julia von Wincott’s reincarnation, but they both share – and in Julia’s case, _shared_ – half of Shinou’s soul, and, with that, all _his_ dreams and ideals.

Despite that, anyway”, Ken continued, “Shibuya – as much as Julia had – has his own character, his own personality and his own disposition as much as his own dreams, his own tastes and his own _life_ …

As much as me. And maybe _more_ than me, because for him it’s far easier than it actually is for me: he doesn’t have to deal with memories from his past as much as I have to, and the only memories he shared with Suzanna Julia are _an accurate_ _selection_ of memories which Shinou himself chose to give him in order to teach him how to be a good king, and certainly _not_ to seduce your husband.

Because, about this, believe me: I have half an idea about Shibuya’s tastes about companions, and, if I am right – and I’m right often enough –, you’ll see quite soon what I mean. And, more precisely”, he specified with a wide grin splitting his face in half, “once we will reach Caloria…”, he insinuated and winked at the redhead spy before reaching his half-empty bottle of rum and swallowing a few more slugs of liquor.

“Now”, he went on, his tongue loosened, his curiosity freed and his tact drastically reduced by the alcohol abundantly circulating through his system. “Do you still love him after how he treated you during all these years?”, he asked, and Yozak just elbowed him, not-so-lightly.

“ _Ok, ok! Sorry!_ ”, Ken raised his arms, surrendering and lightly tittering. “Wrong question!”, he conceded. “By the way, Yozak”, his tone growing more serious while going on speaking, “Watching at you, I don’t think you really want to divorce from him, but you actually don’t trust him anymore. And trust is the foundation of a relationship. _At every_ _level_. You need to think about what you want, about what you can forgive and about what you can allow him, and I can’t assure you that your husband would fully redeem from his mistakes. But you have to decide if it is still worth a try or if it is too late.

Actually”, he stated then, “no one knows what I told you, not even Yuuri. But I decided to share with _you_ this ‘extract’ of my story in order to make you understand that Shibuya is _not_ a menace to your relationship with your husband in himself, because he has his own tastes!

And in fact, if your fears were actually true”, he added, indulging in relying on his logic now that he was actually starting to lose against the alcohol, “sure Yuuri would have fallen in love with _me_ _and_ with _Wolfram_ , and neither of the cases verified. As much as Suzanna Julia would have never fallen for sir Weller. Understood?”, he smiled at him in a comforting way and Yozak sighed resigned and shook his head while half-smiling back at the sage.

“Thank you… and sorry. Guess you don’t like to talk ‘bout your past…”

“You guess right, but for a friend I can make an exception.”, Ken winked at him again and raised his bottle for a new toast. “By the way… I hope that it was enough to lighten your jealousy a little. And well… at least now you need to deal with only _one_ person, and not two…”

The sage paused and suddenly got enlightened by a ‘revelation’: “ACTUALLY I HALVED YOUR PROBLEMS!!”, he exclaimed, deeply proud of himself, “You _sure_ should be thankful to me!! Don’t you think?!”

Then, totally out of the blue, he burst out laughing and, his mind finally freed from the heaviest thoughts and matters, at last the alcohol started to freely flow through his system and got straight to his head.

And after uncontrollably giggling for a few minutes, Ken passed out against Yozak’s shoulder, and the spy had no idea how it was even possible given that he was sitting a few meters from him.

Then Yozak shook his head and shrugged and, sneering lightly, he just swallowed another deep gulp of liquor from his bottle and rested his own head behind against the foot of the capstan.

And he was admiring the reflections over the shiny surface of the sea when he finally fell asleep for a bit too, totally losing track of the passing time.

 

...to be continued...


	4. Old and new memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well...it didn't have to be a chapter... but it wanted to be written, and it wanted it NOW! So I (had to) oblige! XD
> 
> Now it was time for who remained behind at the castle, but Yozak and Murata apparently wanted a bit more space, and then there was poor Wolf... it seems he couldn't wait for his first time! ;)
> 
> I hope you'll like this new chapter! (maybe, when I'll finish this story, I'll re-arrange it in different places/chapters, but I've already written it, so I might as well just have posted it!)

A sudden surge of a bigger wave than the ones before it made Ken jolt awake from his binge-dream and the abrupt movement woke Yozak up startled too.

But, unlike the sage who was rather groggy at the moment and the only thing he was able to do was blinking, the spy, in a reflex given by a good mix of a strong sense of self-preservation and habit, promptly drew his knife hidden under his skirt in a leg-sheath and pointed it in front of himself and the Daikenja, all his senses suddenly awaken and ready to the worst scenario, even despite his hangover – which, actually, had the only consequence of slowing his analysis of the surroundings by a couple of seconds.

Then Yozak lowered his knife, patted the sage on the shoulder and sneered at him, all before Ken could understand what happened.

And the sage’s face, totally drawn in confusion like Yozak never saw it before then, made him burst out laughing shamelessly.

Then, finally, Ken seemed to start to remember.

“Don’t make fun of a drunk, you drunk!”, Ken shook his aching head and complained, but, actually, he was snickering too.

“Score one for you!”, the redhead spy admitted starting laughing. “By the way, Geika: you better go wakin’ up your sleepin’ beauty… he should be on the stairs…”, Yozak suggested.

“How…?”, Ken started but shut up right away and sighed to the knowing smirk he received in response. “Ok: silly question…”, he conceded. “Since when?”, he changed his query and Yozak sneered and maliciously winked at him.

“Long enough…”

Ken chuckled, resigned.

But he should have known it since the moment he decided to go see Wolfram before going to look for the spy…

“Well”, Yozak started, “It seems that, in just a couple of hours, I completely screwed up a forty-one years secret… and obviously it happened the worst moment _ever_ …”

Yozak sighed and looked back at the sea.

And, actually, he already knew it from the start…

Sometimes having very good ears – and a very good nose too – was a curse more than a blessing, and this time was no exception, because he actually heard _all_ the conversation between the sage and Wolfram as much as he heard the blond soldier approaching, speaking to the man the Daikenja paid for watching that no one approached them while they were talking, and then he constantly smelled Wolfram’s odor since his small conversation with the sailor, pretty near them but not too much, as if he didn’t want to be discovered…

“I’m sorry: I told him before coming here…”, Ken replied, suddenly serious again and feeling a little guilty. “I thought he had the right to know more than Shibuya and I actually had, since, for you, he’s _family_.”, he remarked and Yozak blinked.

“…you know: it’s funny, but I must admit that I never saw it in this light before, actually…”, he confessed, and he was a little ashamed of it: in truth he always saw Wolfram as ‘little lord brat’, as a spoiled mazoku child that just _happened_ to be his husband’s brother…

He actually had to give him credit for having grown up in the last few years thanks to Heika, but, since his relationship with Conrad was always something private, something _secret_ , and given their class differences, he never dared take liberties with him or Gwendal…

“Yozak… can I ask you a question?”, Ken posed and Yozak’s eyes crossed the sage’s ones back again.

He peered at him with utter curiosity for a long instant but, at the end, he nodded.

“I wonder… why did you never tell anybody?”, the sage asked him and Yozak snorted and breathed a few times before answering.

“You know… at the time we both were only in our seventies, and Conrad was in his rebellious age.             
Not many years before then, he fought with Gwendal because he could forgive neither him nor his father, the last one for having asked someone who actually hated him – Gwendal – to follow him in his last trip – during which he actually died.     
And, well… he was also jealous of his brother…”, he smirked at the reminiscence, but soon the grin became a sad half-smile: it was so long since the last time Conrad showed him to be jealous over him, and this consciousness hurt…

Ken sighed at his friend’s grief but said nothing and just waited for him to go on.

“You know…”, Yozak started again after a short pause, “Gwendal met me for the first time during Dunheely’s last trip…”

After this statement the redhead spy needed another pause, and he indulged in a long silence before feeling like going on again.

“Everybody in our village, and in all the other villages Conrad’s old man founded, loved him dearly… without him I wouldn’t be here, and, like me, many other people can state the same. We owe him our lives still now, you know?!”, Yozak commented and then heaved a sigh.

“He died in front of my eyes, in Gwendal’s arms, under a tree in my village. Well… everybody else was distant, but I hided on the tree before Gwendal approached him there and neither of them noticed.”, he made a pause before correcting himself: “Actually, I’m not sure Dunheely wasn’t aware of my presence… I replayed this memory again and again in my mind, and every time I feel like he actually _knew_ I was there.”

He sighed heavily.

“By the way, that’s not the point now. The fact is that it was _there_ that the still young Lord von Voltaire took a liking to me and asked me to follow him to the castle and to become a spy under his command. And I followed him back.”

Yozak suddenly snickered before going on.

“Conrad made up an _unprecedented_ fuss once he arrived, that same day, straight from the academy! He was livid over his then-deceased father, Gwendal and me, all for different reasons.”, he explained. “And in order to calm him down a little, at least over me, that same night I sneaked in his room and there we shared our first kiss and our first reciprocal exploration…”, he implied and sighed.

“But, if that deepened our relationship, it didn’t actually helped his one’s with his big brother: as I already said, at the time Conrad was jealous”, he explained, “and jealousy and rationality just don’t mix, as you can easily guess. For years they didn’t speak to each other not even once… and this was the situation with his big brother at the time… the one with Wolfram was even _worse_ , but I think you can guess without further explanations…”, he prompted and Ken raised an eyebrow and forlornly snorted. Then he just nodded and Yozak knew he could go on.

“Then there was the fact that he was a prince, and I was a nobody… the political and social situation at the time, the fact that we actually _are_ half-mazokus… and, last but not least, Lady Cheri’s – let’s call it – _enthusiasm_ … that’s why.”, he affirmed. “And, after that, too many things happened – the war and Lady Suzanna Julia included”, he specified with more than a little venom in his voice at her name. “…and we lost the ‘right time’ to announce it… and then we lost the motivation to come out and to let everybody know about our relationship. And that’s all.”, he breathed hard in and out a few times while losing his gaze into the light games played by the sunset over the rippled surface of the sea.

After what seemed ages Ken finally patted a hand on Yozak’s shoulder and warmly smiled at him.

“Tell me, Yozak”, he started, keeping smiling, “don’t you feel better now that it’s no more a secret?”, he asked him out of the blue and the man watched at him intently in the eye and pondered for a long instant, surprised by the sudden question.

“I guess…”, he finally conceded and sadly answered to the smile he received while lightly shrugging before going back to look at the sea.

“Good: and now”, Ken suddenly stood up – and almost fell down again in his unsteadiness due to the hangover –. He held on to the hoist and silently cursed; then he grabbed the balustrade a couple of meters away from where he was. “you have a few issues which need your attention, and I need to take care of my fiancé.”, he said and he started to follow the handrail in order to reach the stairs – and then Wolfram – but he abruptly stopped when he got to the nearest point to Yozak without leaving the support of the rail.

Ken faltered a little and what seemed a change in his intent caught the spy’s attention, who turned to him as to check if everything was all right, waiting for the sage to puke any second.

But what he found was a pondering gaze intently staring at him.

“Geika… are you ok?”, he asked the sage, quite uncertain.

“…hem… would you mind reaching me here? I’m not sure I’m going to be able to reach you without falling…”

Yozak gazed at him curiously for a second but soon obeyed, although not without difficulty.

When he was near enough, then, Ken leered at him: it was just an instant before he grabbed the taller man by his collar and lured him in a deep and passionate kiss.

“I’ve wanted to do this for _years_. Since the first time I saw you and you believed me, actually…”, the sage specified, widely and mischievously grinning at an astonished and taken aback Yozak. “Please, take it as a blessing – or a good luck charm if you prefer – from your soon-to-be brother-in-law!”, Ken concluded and winked at him. Then, now totally satisfied, he staggered away to the stairs and to Wolfram still holding on to the balustrade so not to fall… all that while Yozak, once snapped out of the shock, went back to sit down where he was since a few moments before.

‘ _I never dared, but I dreamed of kissing you so many times since I first met you, Geika!_ ’, he thought still a little bit dreamy but now totally recovered from the hangover, and smiled to the horizon.

And it was the first bright and earnest smile since his argument with Conrad.

‘ _…and now it’s no more a regret…_ ’, the redhead man realized and his heart felt lighter.

Then his smile evolved in a light chuckle that soon grew to a clear guffaw, as if the sage’s ‘little magic’ actually worked in lightening his spirit up.

And Ken, hearing him laughing, smugly smiled under his sleeve.

‘ _In Sir Weller’s face!_ ’, he thought and, while silently approaching a sleeping Wolfram on the stairs, he grinned evilly in a way Shinou – knowing him – would have probably been proud of.

-&-

If only he hadn’t a hangover, Ken would have carried his fiancé in his arms to Wolfram’s stateroom and he would have made of it _their_ stateroom for the rest of their journey by ship, but unfortunately he felt like crap at the moment, so he had to change his plan – at least a bit.

He sat next to him on the same step, blocking the way entirely, and he wrapped his arm around his shoulders and nestled him against himself, his lover’s head against his chest, on his widely pounding heart. And Wolfram, still sleeping, just snuggled up to his warm hug.

Ken gently moved a long lock of his brown wig away and gingerly kissed him on the forehead.

Wolfram whimpered an unintelligible moan and just curled up more against him, like a baby, and Ken’s heart literally melted.

_He was so defenseless! So vulnerable! …so adorable…_

“You’re _irresistible_ , jeez! My beautiful lion…”, he whispered in a sigh and hugged him even more tightly, this time with both his arms.

“…Ken…”, Wolfram murmured slowly waking up and smiling content into his bear hug, his flushed face hidden against his beloved’s chest, his senses intoxicated by the unmistakable body-odor all around him, unique like its owner.

“Love… I seriously, _totally_ want you. _Now_.”, the sage frantically uttered in something like a plea, his voice hoarse and raspy, his heart hammering in his chest, his head definitely dizzy for more than just the hangover.

Wolfram raised his head and, maliciously smiling at him, looked into his eyes, his face still rosy.

“You know: you are totally a beast, my dragon!”, he whined and snorted, but the second later, for once – and for _the first time_ if excluded the time of their first bet –, he was the one who stole him a passionate kiss and not vice-versa.

But when, caught up in the heat of the moment, Ken started to hastily undress him there, while they were still in public, Wolfram slapped him hard, and not merely in order to stop him…

And after a short surprise, knowing exactly the ulterior motive behind that precise gesture, Ken started laughing happily and briefly kissed him back before hurriedly standing up – even if still a bit stumble for more than a reason now – and then, taking his fiancé’s hand, he just dragged him along to _their_ cabin as fast as he could without tripping.

And Yozak, still sat against the capstan on the forecastle deck, sneered under his sleeve at Wolfram’s complaints for the sage’s rude manners – sure more out of habit than because he was really upset, because, _seriously_ , he had absolutely _no reason_ to be upset with him right now –, and heard them rush away, sure for reaching, as soon as possible, a locked door behind which they could continue from where they were forced to stop…

-&-

Wolfram, hand in hand with his fiancé, their fingers laced together, his heart pounding in his chest harder and harder every instant, so wildly that he felt it rumble in his throat and even inside his ears, just followed his beloved to the lower deck and into a stateroom he could only gather was his own.

The anticipation was literally driving him crazy, to the point that, once inside, he promptly slammed the door with his boot and jumped Ken, almost throwing him off balance.

“…how do you do this?…”, Wolfram gasped for air between a kiss and another after a few minutes of oblivion.

“Do what?…”, the sage suddenly stopped and gave him a quizzical look, taken a little aback by the obscure nature of the question.

Wolfram panted heavily.

“ _This!_ ”, he re-marked, as if that only word was enough an explanation by itself, and then he literally assaulted him back.

In truth, it wasn’t, but Ken was quite sure he gathered it anyway: then he abruptly moved his roaming hands from his fiancé’s perfect body and just squeezed his cheeks between his palms, now smothering him with kisses all over his face, more and more eager every second, until this mad feast lingered on his rosy lips, where he satisfied his hunger.

“ _I love you_ , my beautiful, _irresistible_ lion! My angel!!”, he keenly proclaimed and strongly kissed him again.

Then, after a long moment, he stopped and just watched him with totally lustful eyes.

“Please, _please_!”, he beseeched him in a frenzied eagerness. “Please!”, he repeated again, panting. “Remove these execrable outrages to your beauty _this instant_! I can’t stand to watch at your marred splendor one second longer! It’s a total _insult_ to your radiant magnificence, my beautiful Wolfram!”

Then Ken clutched his lover’s cheeks even harder than before between his hands, his fingers digging under Wolfram’s wig to find and interlace with his blond and fluffy curls.

And where everybody else would have been feeling at least a bit sheepish at the sage’s quaint comment, Ken’s words made something inside Wolfram crash instead and the last flicker of his lover’s inhibitions just crumbled away for good.

“And you, remove your damn blue contacts! I _hate_ them!!”, Wolfram commanded while fiercely whipping his wig away, uncaring of the hairpins, and Ken, wildly grinning, just obliged.

“Love! _Love_!”, Ken rushed towards him to save at least his contact lenses from a bad end, stopping him just in time from throwing them on the floor without ceremony. “Yozak will kill us if we break or lose them for something like that!”, he teased him slightly sneering and Wolfram seemed to ponder about the issue for a moment before desisting, in the end, from the sudden urge to hurl the fucking lenses against the nearest wall and to go find where they fell just to step on them with the clear and only intent of smashing them in a thousand pieces out of spite to his remark.

And Ken, who knew his hot-tempered fiancé quite well, couldn’t refrain from bursting out laughing at his expression, strained in a royal snit.

Wolfram slapped him hard for the second time of the day – and ever, in truth – and then he fiercely curled his fingers in Ken’s hair, pulling him close enough to kiss him. And the kiss was rough, and fierce, and sloppy, and this time Wolfram easily won their first battle for dominance.

But Ken loved how feisty his lover was. He loved his determination, his strength, his _fire_! And that soon ignited him more and more, until his craving for him overwhelmed his senses and blurred his mind and the animal instinct prevailed over reason and got the better of him.

“Oh, _Wolfram_!”, he growled wheezy while attacking him back, and all Wolfram’s advantage over him vanished in a blink of an eye.

The soldier could be stronger, more trained, and even – more or less an inch – taller, but this time he could nothing against his fiancé’s mounting yearning: Ken, without breaking away from his lips, pinned his lover against the wall and stripped him of his dress and underwear in a heartbeat.

And soon the blond’s strength failed him and his legs yielded while a soft pleading moan left his throat before he could control it.

“I _hate_ you!”, Wolfram declared. “You _always_ make all my certainties _crumble_!”, he whined and Ken laughed.

“Like making what, my love?”, he asked, amused, and lavishly licked and savored a rosy nipple, making him squeal shamelessly under his care and taking delight in it, his sadistic nature developed over the centuries and the millennia slowly taking over the rush.

Wolfram panted heavily, unable to speak for a moment, drowning in pleasure.

“…like making me want to be _ravished_ by you to the core, _fuck_!”, he swore, his eyes darkened in arousal, and cried in pure bliss when Ken bit hard and then nipped at his poor nipple another couple of times for the sole aim of hearing his lover squeaking under him more.

And when Ken suddenly got down on his knees, Wolfram believed that finally his lover decided to take him in his mouth.

But he was wrong, because the sage continued his descent and started kissing and licking and nipping his legs, starting from his calf and then climbing up on his inner thighs, very slowly and never reaching the main target.

Wolfram stuck his fingernails into the wood of the door and bit his lower lip trying to control himself from pleading with him to just give him a blow job, but after not so long he reached his limit and decided to take what he wanted: he moved his hands from the wooden surface behind him and buried his fingers in his fiancé’s now blond hair, forcibly guiding him where he craved for more attention.

But Ken resisted.

The sage grabbed his lover by both his wrists and freed himself from Wolfram’s grip. Then, for the first time since he decided to take care of the lower part of his fiancé’s body, he raised his gaze and mischievously looked at him, his eyes two pitch black orbs full of impish lechery, sign that he was clearly enjoying his time.

“AAAH!! I DEFINITELY HATE YOU!!”, Wolfram yelled, totally vexed, and, feeling powerless, he just covered his flushing face with his hands, practically compelled to go along with his lover’s wishes and kinks.

And Ken, at the comment, smugly smirked at his fiancé and finally took his arousal in his mouth, making Wolfram groan in ecstasy the moment his wet cavity received his lover’s until-then-neglected cock and his release.

And, for the first time, Ken savored his beloved’s taste and he liked it.

Then he rose, and Wolfram wrapped his arms around his neck in order to keep his balance while the sage made his fiancé taste his own flavor through a fierce and still ravenous kiss that awakened his desire once again in a pretty short time.

Wolfram, when he recovered enough to be able to stand without a support, started to finally undress Ken, who, until then, just got rid of his colored contact lenses and his glasses and nothing more.

By the way, the sage, instead of helping him, found all the possible ways to distract him from his task, kissing and biting and licking and touching him everywhere. But his naked fiancé stopped, taken aback, only when a roaming finger found its way up inside him.

“WHAT?!”, he squealed, a little outraged by the sudden intrusion, but Ken only grinned at him with lustful eyes and a malicious intent and just rummaged around in search of his sweet spot, which he eventually found, making his lover wide his eyes open in surprise and cry out loud in pleasure, leaving him gasping for air.

“Wha—how?!”, he stuttered, still shaken by the wave of pleasure that, totally out of the blue, ran through his body.

“Tell me: are you longing for more, my lion?”, Ken provoked him grinning, but he received a reply he would have never hoped for.

“YES! Gimme more! _NOW!_ ”, Wolfram commanded, no shame or inhibitions left inside him anymore, and then he literally assaulted him, making his lover lose balance and fall head-over-hills on the floor with a loud ‘thud’.

“OUCH!!”, the sage protested, but Wolfram’s complaints for the loss of contact inside himself were even louder than his, and soon Ken forgot his aching back and couldn’t refrain from laughing.

“Then you dare ask yourself _why_ I hate you!”, Wolfram started pouting and Ken could only laugh more.

“I don’t need it, my peppery lion: I’ve _always_ known!”, his fiancé declared and the blond soldier definitely lost his temper and, raising from over him, he took Ken’s pants and underpants off in just one go, making his dripping erection just pop out, finally free too.

“You know…”, Ken suddenly chimed in, and he needed all his self-restraint.

Actually, at that very moment, he had to admit he was _really_ conflicted, but at the end he decided to divert his lover from his aim, although if stopping him only meant to postpone his own climax.

“…Wolfram, love…I don’t have any lubricant in hand, so you better lick it before putting it in, and meanwhile, if you turn, I can return the favor and prepare you too… we’ll cut the time and maybe it won’t hurt you…”, he proposed a bit half-heartedly given the sacrifice he was making, “How about it?”

Wolfram actually stopped and seemed to ponder over his offer.

“…only if you do it again…”, he eventually replied after a while, and there was no need for further explanation.

Ken smirked and snickered, a lecherous sparkle in his pitch black eyes.

“Sure, my naughty lion!”, he affirmed, and Wolfram pouted, but it was clearly just a pose because the moment later he was already grinning back and sensually nipping his bottom lip.

Then he snorted in his typical way.

“Said the most perverted beast of the world!”

“…and your fiancé, Wolfram!”, Ken pointed out and winked at him and then, pinning on his elbow, he rolled around and jumped him, switching their positions to a more favorable one for him despite his previous offer.

"So it seems!”, Wolfram confirmed and, gleefully chuckling, grabbed him by his collar and pulled him down for a deep and passionate kiss, and Ken smiled and chortled while kissing him back with the same enthusiasm and joyful contentment.

And that moment he was sure of one thing: in four thousand years and more he lived, he felt like this only _once_ before then, and it was during the two weeks Shinou deleted from his mind.

 

 

...to be continued...


	5. The Tripod

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here I am with a new release!  
> I hope you'll like it :)
> 
> This chapter takes place in Blood Pledge Castle only.  
> Initially I thought I could halve the chapter in two main parts, one set in the castle and the other one once again on the ship, but I prefered to divide it also because you would have had to wait more if I decided otherwise...
> 
> By the way, I won't totally exclude another release in a short time, because at least a part of the next chapter is already written and more or less ready, but it's the last part of the chapter... I need to fill the little gap between the end of chapter 4 and the scene I already wrote and is actually on my computer, ready to be posted...
> 
> So, for now, please, enjoy! :D (and, as always, please forgive me for my grammar mistakes... I'm a grammar-nazi with my native language, so I understand it may be quite annoying to find mistakes in a story written in your native one...)

Greta knocked on the door as a formality and entered without waiting for a response from inside, a commonly held bad habit for almost all the inhabitants of the castle.

“Anissina!! Lindsey wrote me that his arrival was brought forward to the next week!! At the end he just went back home to organize his things to come back!! Oh, I’m so hap---py… _Anissina!_ ”, she stopped where she was and looked at the witch with apprehension. “Hem…are you feeling alright? Did you drink too much yesterday night by any chance?”, the young lady asked her noticing the bucket handy next to the ‘Sit-down-and-I’ll-make-you-feel-good-kun_summer-edition’ where she found the woman… just one of Anissina’s inventions, consisting in a fluffy chair full of appendages useful for many needs – masturbation included, as the girl already started to learn from her mentor – …appendages that, by the way, now, were peculiarly positioned on her _temples_ and _not_ elsewhere…

“Hem… yeah…”, the redhead woman replied in a little unconvincing way and then she made a request that no one ever heard coming from her lips before: “By the way, would you kindly call Gisela for me, Greta, please?”

And the girl watched at her as if she had two heads.

“Come on, Greta: don’t look at me like that.”, Anissina weakly complained. “She is a friend and a healer, and a so prolonged nausea is something new for me. That’s all. I’m sure it’s nothing, but maybe she can prepare me an infusion more effective than mine. It’s worth a try, don’t you believe?”, she attempted a smile but all that came out was a wince of pain and a dry heave, and Greta, quite worried about the health of the strongest woman she knew – and who now was just a mess – obeyed without further protests and came back, no more than five minutes later, with Gunter’s daughter.

Gisela stopped on the threshold and threw a look around the room before finally resting her eyes on her friend, pensive.

 “Greta, I need you to go back to my office and take the jars which say zingiber officinalis, mentha piperita and citrus limon. Then go to the kitchens and ask for hot water. We are going to prepare an infusion. Oh, and Greta!”, Gisela stopped her when she was already out of the room and was going to close the door behind herself. “Please, tell the servants to leave it out of the door and just knock to make us know that everything is arrived.”

Then, at the girl’s questioning look she gave her, the healer added with a smirk, jokingly: “You know Anissina: she doesn’t like to be seen less then ‘invulnerable’…”

“It wrecks my reputation!”, the said woman acidly commented feigning indignation, and that was enough for Greta to stop doubting their intentions.

But the exact moment they knew they were alone, Anissina looked at the healer a little perplexed about her deliberate – in her eyes – decision of starting watching from prying ears – _was being ill really anything she had to hide from people?!_ , she thought –, and Gisela, on her behalf, pierced her back with a single, probing glare.

“Tell me it is _not_ what I believe.” was all she said, accusingly and partially curious, because she didn’t know that the woman was ‘sexually active’ with something that wasn’t an object – or a chair –, and, in response to her suggestion, Anissina abruptly froze, her breath suddenly stolen away.

She never thought, either for a second, it could be _that_.

She was going to negate, but the protests died in her throat and she paled, suddenly remembering that once – and _only_ once – she forgot to take her infallible ‘Pleasure-without-consequences’, an infusion of her own creation to take before every intercourse.

“…… _oh shit_ ……”, she hissed and then she hastily grabbed the buck laying next to her and, firmly wrapping her arms around it, she puked inside it, shaken to the core.

“No… nonononono… nono… nonono… no…”, she repeated like a mantra in a moment of peace from the ‘throwing up session’. Then she looked at Gisela and the heaves came back stronger than before.

“NO!! IT CAN’T BE TRUE!!”, she cried out loud, bewildered and desperate, shaking her head in refusal to her state.

How could she tell her friend that probably she was going to have a new brother or sister?!

How could she even _hope_ to explain it to the world without putting at risk his lovers’ career and, in the worst case scenario, his brother’s too!?

“You have to help me. I _can’t_ take it.”, Anissina asserted, pure terror in her shaky voice, and Greta chose that exact moment to come back and open the door, risking to let go of the jars that she had her hands full of.

But anyway, something behind the girl crashed on the ground, making the three females jump in surprise.

“OH GREAT SHINOU!! DID I LISTEN WELL?! WE ARE GOING TO BECOME FATH—”

“SHUT. UP! YOU STUPID, EMOTIONAL, FRENZIED, DEMENTED _MAN_!”, where, knowing Anissina, ‘man’ was an insult as much as the previous adjectives related to it; but Gunter couldn’t listen to the insults till the end because his head went in overload of strongly-emotionally-related information and he collapsed.

“OH, GODS!”, she swore, “…just take your damn father inside and close the damn door!”, Anissina ordered to Gisela and sighed, giving up hope and feeling like puking again – and, finally, just doing it for the nth time of the worst day of her entire life, which, sadly, was long to be at its end: after all it was only _three_ in the afternoon!

 _The last thing they needed now was Gwendal knocking at her door!_ , she thought.

But the fates could be far more wicked than just that…

When someone from outside knocked less than a minute later, _all of them_ froze, and when Lady Cheri opened the door wide, showing herself in her full glory and determination, even Anissina felt like passing out.

And if Gunter – who slowly started to recover from the shock – miraculously resisted the urge to lose himself to pure panic the moment the woman made her theatrical entrance, he finally fainted – again – at her gleeful “CONGRATULATIONS TO THE THREE OF YOU!!”.

Gisela and Greta looked at her in confusion, while Anissina only glared at the beautiful woman, totally _horrified_.

“… _Anissina_ …”, the healer started in a threatening tone once she felt she was able to speak again, “is there, by any chance, _anything_ in particular that I should need to know?”, she probed her friend, suddenly icily now that her incorrigible father was knocked out on the floor.

Actually, Gisela, for some not-better-specified reason, tended to have a better behavior with her own (hopeless) father than with everybody else, even in the _oddest_ situations – a not so rare contingency knowing the man – so she wouldn’t have been so harshly unwavering with Anissina if only Gunter was somewhat in condition of answering her questions! And the redhead woman knew that _perfectly_ well, so, in _that_ , she found one more reason to blame the one lover there at the moment.

And sure she could blame the other one for having a mother like Lady Cheri…

“I’m not sure it’s the best way – or the best moment – to tell you, Gisela, but well… you know…”, she dithered while moistening her dry lips and averting her eyes, her cheeks uncharacteristically reddened in _shame_ , because Gisela was _the_ _last_ person she needed finding out about them… and not to mention Greta!! – “…me, Gunter and, well… Gwendal too… hem… well… how can I say it? You see… we are in a _peculiar_ kind of relationship… hem… let’s say quite… ‘ _intimate’_?…”, she attempted to explain in the vaguest way she was able to after the nth pause and, while Greta watched at her totally surprised and Lady Cheri enjoyed the scene, far crossed the threshold of her own sanity and oblivious to the fact that they were speaking of her incorrigible father, Gisela grabbed Gunter by the collar and started to smack his own parent on the face in order to make him finally recover his senses and accomplishing the exact opposite.

A quite rare – if not unique – sight…

Anissina, by the way, didn’t interfere with her friend’s attempt of venting from her rage and shock and took a mischievous and perverse delight in watching at his harshly bitten up lover, because she thought that he deserved it all; and also, if only she were able to do it herself at that moment, she would have gladly and with great satisfaction taken her place by now.

At the end it was Lady Cheri the one who finally intervened, although it happened after a few minutes of not-so-undeserved violence against the man’s mindless, inconsiderate and ill-timed assertion – as he always tended to involuntarily do…

“Come on, Gisela, dear… don’t be so harsh with your poor father. He made what he made for love! And Anissina and my dear first son were obviously moved by the same purpose.”

“They’re risking their career and their names for an unreasonable _kink_! How can you _not_ see it?!”, the green-haired woman bitterly replied. “ _Every_ _time_ you only _smell_ the word ‘love’ in the air you go crazy like my father and you become _unreasonable_ , Lady Cheri!! But _here_ we aren’t talking about _you_ , but about _my_ _father_ , the head of household of the von Christs and one of the Ten Nobles! You are the ex-Maoh, and before you were the Maoh! You can deny it, but you sure have more freedom in your choices than anybody else! But _he_ ”, and she pointed at her stupid adoptive parent, “is considered eccentric enough _even_ _without_ the news of his triple-affair with the most stoic man in the Council AND the crazy sister of another of the most influent members of the ten most influent families of Shin Makoku! They are going to ruin their own lives in a blink of an eye before you could even say ‘bah’! So, _for_ _once_ I must admit that I _totally_ agree with Anissina, even if I’m quite sure, knowing my father and your son quite well, that _she_ is the one to blame for this _immoral_ relationship: she _CAN’T_ take the baby!”, she blurted out dangerously near the threshold of hysteria, and no one never saw her in a similar state of mind before then.

“ _Gisela_ ”, Gunter slowly recomposed himself and stood up in front of her daughter with a quite rare aura since the new Maoh’s arrival in their world, silencing every possible protests from _all_ the women in the room while suddenly switching from the crazy and emotionally insecure man to the refined noble and respectable advisor of the king. “This matter does _not_ concern you. Also, I can’t allow you to address the previous Maoh with that tone and those _mindless_ words!”, he reprimanded her daughter. “The research of love that you seem to despise so much is _never_ an easy issue to pursue, and Lady Cheri’s life, as you should know better, was _never_ easy! And smiling like she does and she always did all the time is _the_ _hardest_ thing in the world to accomplish!”, he said in an unusual harsh tone that brought an heavy silence in the room; but in that exact moment Anissina remembered _why_ she started to love Gunter too and _why_ their relationship wouldn’t have been able to work and survive _without_ him: they were a team, and they were perfectly matched together. And finally Gunter was playing his role in that play, and she was proud of him.

“Father… I’m sorry for my words to Lady Cheri,” Gisela stated in an ashamed tone, but soon her voice became steadier “but you are wrong when you declare that all this _doesn’t_ concern me, because it concerns me as much as you, Anissina, Lord von Voltaire, Lady Cheri and Lord von Kalbernikoff, and it concerns me since the moment you decided to officially give me _your_ name.”, the green-haired woman-soldier retorted, but Gunter just posed his hands over her shoulders and sadly smiled at her.

“The blame, if the news might ever spread, will fall on _me_ , not you, I promise. By the way, you have nothing to fear: I have always been ready to step back if something like that happened.”, he changed his tone in an heartbreaking one. “I have you, so I don’t need an heir”, and he swallowed hard before adding in an incredibly steady voice given the words which followed: “And whatever Anissina or Gwendal should say in this regard, even if they deny it, Gwendal loves her more than he loves me. Also, knowing my feelings for Gwendal, it was only very, _very_ kind of Anissina to decide to ask me if I wanted to share him with her, so I won’t allow you to badmouth her or blame her for _my own_ _whims_.”, he emphasized the last three words, and when he finished, his face was a mess of silent tears along his cheeks and chin, but his eyes never averted from his daughter’s and his voice incredibly never faltered, not even once.

In the even heavier silence than before that followed, neither Gisela nor Lady Cheri dared open their mouth and try to reply anything, but, while Greta stood now in a corner of the room, not at all sure if it was wise of her to be there in a moment like that, Anissina gathered all her strength in order to stand up and reach Gunter, and she slapped him in front of everyone – right hand against left cheek, as tradition requires.

“You. Don’t. Ever. _Try_. To repeat. That. Rubbish. Again. As long. As I’m. Alive. Understood?”, every pause a punch – as hard as she could in her weak and debilitated state – against Gunter’s slender but solid chest. Her voice an outraged hiss full of raging indignation, and Gisela and Lady Cheri seemed to share the same firm belief that only a miracle could be the reason that Anissina still hadn’t puked in Gunter’s face, given the stress of the moment on her shaking, overly tensed and worn-out body.

But the demon sadly shook his head in response to her gesture, ready to refuse her and sure to know better.

“You know I am right, Anissina.”, he calmly replied. “You both can’t lie to me, because your bodies tell me _every time_ that this is the truth… but I want to thank you for everything you gave me until now, dear.”

“That’s. _RIDICULOUS_!!”, she interrupted him in a loud yell, aplenty weeping for the first time she could remember, shocking for that the entire little audience. “ _Do you ever listen to yourself, you stupid man!?_ ”, she cried, still incredulous of his lover’s assertions, showing maybe for the first time ever – at least in public – her weakness and her humanity. “And _don’t decide_ on yourself what I feel like about you! Why!? Please! Just tell. Me. _Why!_ You can’t seem to understand that our relationship CAN’T work without one of us _three_!!”, she re-marked, on the threshold of the most total exasperation of her entire life. “And tell me: can’t I state the same about _you_?!”, she accused him and, for the first time since that thorny conversation started, Gunter averted his eyes from hers. “I can’t love you like I love Gwendal, but who said that I love you _less_ than him?! You are you, and he’s he, and you are different from each other! So I love you differently! Isn’t it just _normal_?!”, she asked him. “And don’t try to make me believe that you don’t think _exactly_ the same!!”, she stated and then she kissed him on the lips with all her might, hoping that, this way, her feelings for him would finally be able to reach him in all their strength. “I know that you love me”, she continued, her hormones probably talking and acting for her, “or else you would have _never_ spoken like you did before. And I won’t give up on you. Nor on Gwendal. _Ever_.”, she emphasized the last word and she kissed him again and hugged him hard, and everyone in the room just stared at the ‘hugging-AND-weeping-Anissina’, because they all never thought her able of something like that and, if they hadn’t been there to witness the scene, they still would have _never_ believed it.

“ _Oh, my dears!_ ”, Lady Cheri abruptly stepped in in a gleeful voice, “ _About that_ …”, she suggested with a wide smile and voluntarily stopped for emphasis until everybody turned to watch at her with sudden interest. “I’m working for finding a solution to your ‘problem’ and I am sure that you’ll be glad to know that we have some _strong_ supporters – in more than one way – of your cause!”, she widely smiled at them and Gunter and Anissina shared a quizzical/uncertain look before turning back to watch at Lady Cheri.

“What do you mean?”, Anissina dryly started, but a moment later Gunter mitigated her words and harsh tone with an “if we are allowed to ask, obviously!”

Then Lady Cheri just smirked at them and, after a mischievous glance at the couple, she replied, knowingly: “Obviously, my dears!” and, after another short pause, she started to ‘explain’. “You surely need to know that _the Maoh_ gave me carte blanche about this issue in particular since when I discovered about your ‘situation’ and decided to talk to him about it…”, she made another brief pause before adding “So I decided to go to the temple and ask for Ulrike’s _and Shinou Heika’s_ advise. Obviously they pledged me their total support!” she finally smiled at them and more than an eyebrow raised in skeptical surprise.

“… _obviously_ …”, Gisela cynically echoed back while Anissina face-palmed herself and Gunter still was uncertain about _how_ to react to – all – the news. Meanwhile poor Greta tried to follow the conversation and to understand – dramatically failing – _why_ all of them wore a doubtful face about a development that actually sounded pretty good to her ears instead!

“Sweethearts! Why do you have to seem so skeptical?!”, the blond femme fatale protested, but she received only an heavier silence and glaring eyes with higher brows and even more wrinkled foreheads than before in response. “Come on! We have a plan of action!! …maybe we need to adjust it a little now that it seems that our Anissina is going to give birth in the near future, but fear not! After a few revisions of the initial schedule, everything is going to be alright! And believe me: _we will succeed_!”, she concluded almost feral and her tone was absolute, clear mirror of her abiding determination about making it work at all costs.

Anissina and Gunter shared another look, and the first one who broke the silence that fell upon them was the Wind Wielder demon, who conspiratorially smiled back at the ex-queen and spoke six words only: “What are we supposed to do?”

Then Lady Cheri finally took a seat on the sofa and innocently smiled at poor Greta, until that moment forgotten in a corner of the room, and asked her: “My sweetest girl, would you mind going to Gwen’s office and telling him _he’s needed_ in Anissina’s lab right away? And please, dear: don’t add any more details than these exact words… you know him, don’t you?”, she suggested and the girl just nodded with a serious glint in her chocolate round eyes and obeyed. “Oh, Greta!”, she called her back, “After this little commission, you don’t need to come back here…”

-&-

“ANISSINA, WHAT HAPP----ened?!”, Gwendal rushed in the woman’s lab and the words died in his throat the moment he saw _who_ was inside.

“Oh Gwen, my precious first son! Please, come in and sit down next to our beautiful Gunter!”, Lady Cheri did the honors and meanwhile she raised on her feet in order to reach Anissina’s special alcohol reserve on a shelf to the other side of the room. Then she took a glass – the largest one – and, once filled it up to the edge, she gave it to her son. “Here. Please, help yourself. You’ll need it.”, she recommended to him and Gwendal, dubious, turned to Gunter and Anissina, who, for some reason, seemed – _both_ – too ashamed to stand his gaze.

With the still-full glass in his hand Gwendal finally turned to the only one in the room who seemed intentioned to look and talk to him.

“What happens, mother? And what are you doing here?”, he bitterly asked her and – peculiarly enough – both Gunter _and Anissina_ glanced at him with sheepish eyes while, instead, Lady Cheri smiled at him one of her brightest smiles in return.

“Anissina, my dear”, the oldest woman in the room turned to the inventor and addressed her instead, “why don’t you tell him the news about your conditions?”

Gwendal put the full glass on the nearest flat surface and opened his eyes and mouth wide in a blast realization.

Suddenly all the pieces merged together: the smell of vomit in the room, the bucket near Anissina, her on _that_ chair with its appendages on her _temples_ , the sheepish attitude of his lovers… so his feeling that something was _different_ about Anissina was right…

 _But how could her mother know about_ the three _of them?!_

“Mother… I deduce that you are aware of our relationship, am I right?”, Gwen intervened in an incredibly calm tone and his lovers suddenly glared at him in shock while the silent question ‘ _How can he be so calm?!_ ’ in their eyes was literally screaming out of their faces.

“Yes, my dear!” was all she gingerly replied before Gwendal stunned them – all – with his further comment.

“Anissina, love. I sincerely hope that she’s _not_ here because you tried to do anything _stupid_ about our baby.”

And while Gunter and Anissina watched at him in total disbelief, the previous queen of Shin Makoku proudly smiled at his son.

“You took the better from me _and_ your father, it seems, my son!”, she declared and Gwendal raised a brow a little bit dumbfounded. “I’m so proud of you! When I got pregnant of you, Heeley found out even before me, you know?”, she shortly explained and broadly smiled at him before finally going back to the main topic which they were there for. “By the way, I just put to use the moment and the good news in order to finally start the plan I have in mind for the three of you so that you can stay together out in the open, without fearing for your political carriers and your good name.”

“And, if I am allowed to ask, mother… how long have you known about us?”

“I regret to say that it is not very long since, but it is enough to have ensured the Maoh’s total support to our cause.”, she suggested and Gwendal froze at the thought of His Majesty knowing about them.

He turned to Gunter, the one more easily shaken at the king’s mention, but the man, for once, only lightly shrugged and sighed in resignation. Then he turned back to his mother and she went on.

“…and Ulrike and Shinou Heika will support us too. It’s only a matter of time and of good dialectic with every member of the Council individually before you will be able to announce your relationship to the world!”, she declared. “But we have to start moving _now_.”, Lady Cheri cut short and Gwendal snorted and deeply sighed.

“If that is all for now, please leave, mother. We shall continue to discuss about the due arrangements tomorrow morning in my office” was all he said then, and Lady Cheri, after throwing a good look to his son’s eyes, obliged without complaints and, standing up and kindly bowing her head to the three of them, reached the door and left without further comments.

“HOW CAN YOU BE SO CALM!!!”, peculiarly enough, Gunter and Anissina yelled _in unison_ the exact moment the door closed behind the blonde lady and Gwendal shook his head and sighed.

“I’m not calm at all”, he replied in an anticlimactic tone, gaining a skeptical look from his lovers, who clearly were thinking the opposite but soon changed their mind when they saw him reach the full glass of slivovica – the most terrible liquor he ever tried in his entire life and the almost only one that Anissina seemed to enjoy drinking – that he previously put down on a high pile of books next to him and he voided it _in one go_.

Then Gwendal stood up, approached Anissina and gently put a hand on her belly and reached his other hand out to Gunter, waiting for him to join him there and grab it.

When Gunter’s hand was finally in his, Gwendal strongly pulled him against himself and kissed him hard on the lips, enough to make the usually uninhibited man – at least when they were in private – blush, and then he made the same, even if more gently – but not more blandly –, to Anissina.

Then he smiled at them – a rare sight – and declared in a calm and peaceful tone: “We are going to have twins, my loves. We need to celebrate, so what about a hot bath together tonight when everybody is going to be asleep? I suggest we sneak in the Maoh’s baths, just to avoid prying eyes. I’ll tell my mother later. Also, Anissina, I’m sure a hot bath will help you with your nausea a little.”, he prompted and both Gunter and Anissina burst out laughing in hysterics – and so hard that she needed to reach for the bucket once again soon enough!

_Gwendal suggesting they break the rules was a first!_

“…how can you tell?”, Gunter finally asked Gwendal once he recollected enough to be able to speak once more. “Isn’t it a bit too soon to make a similar declaration? Nauseas usually start between the third and the forth month, and I read that you can’t tell before the seventh… also, it’s quite rare for Mazokus to have twins… are you sure, Gwen, or is it just a wish of yours?”

But the demon just shrugged in response and replied a simple “I’m sure”, which happened to be enough for the other two who, after that, just dropped the subject and enjoyed a long, peaceful moment of silence before Gwendal suggested they go back to their chores.

“Yeah… and first thing first I believe I should need to talk with Gisela.”, Gunter chimed in. “After what happened before it’s better if we clarify…”, he added and Gwendal, who, by then, had already reached the door, abruptly stopped and turned back to them.

“ _Why_ ”, he started warily. “What happened _exactly_ before my arrival? I assumed that my mother was the only one who knew…”, he probed them, suddenly on alert, and, as first answer, he received only two pairs of sheepish eyes.

“So?”, he insisted at their abiding silence, then the one who broke it and answered back to his pries was Gunter.

“…Gisela was there… and Greta too… but they’ll keep the secret. The both of them.”, he reassured him, but Gwendal couldn’t refrain from heaving a sigh and silently cursing, suddenly preoccupied for some reason.

“I hope you’re right, Gunter… but from your faces I assume Gisela didn’t take the news too well…”, he replied and Gunter shadowed a little and averted his eyes from his.

“…sadly you assume right. She even suggested Anissina get rid of the baby…or babies, if you’re right.”, he deeply sighed and Gwendal echoed him.

“Maybe you should talk to your daughter.”, the Earth Wielder prompted but Gunter only shrugged in response and hinted an uncertain “maybe” when Anissina suddenly stepped in the conversation.

“Gunter”, she exclaimed, “what you already told her is more than enough. I know her: she only needs time to process the news. And I want you to know that, even if I don’t want to listen to that crap ever again until I live, I appreciated the intention behind your words. And I’m proud of you for all _the first part_ of your speech.”, she specified. Then, under a perplexed gaze from Gwendal who had no idea about what was going on between the other two and an averted glance of a deeply flushing Gunter, she reached a hand out to her Wind Wielder lover with expectance.

“Gunter, please, come here for a second.”, she spoke out loud what she wanted when she saw him reluctant to act under Gwendal’s prying eyes, and only at that he obliged. Then she kissed him in front of Gwendal and, also in front of Gwendal she slapped him once more.

“As I already announced in front of your mother, Gisela and Greta,”, she started while addressing Gwendal and only then she turned back again to Gunter, “I’m definitely going to marry _you_ _too_ , because I won’t give up on you for him. We are a team, and the three of us are made for each other. We are like a tripod, Gunter: we can’t stand on two legs only.”

“Anissina…”, Gunter was going to give in for tears, but the woman hadn’t finished.

“Gwendal: before, Gunter tried to insinuate that I love you more than how I love him, and that, for you, it is the same.”, she stated and Gunter lowered his gaze on a spot on the floor in shame, sorely mindful of a similar speech with Gwendal not many days before then, and of his words in that regard.

“ _Gunter_!”, Gwendal suddenly roared in disbelief and rage to Anissina’s implication. “Were my words of the other night to you _for_ _nothing_?!”, he harshly complained and his lover started to nibble at his lower lip in anxiety but said nothing in return.

“ANSWER ME, FOR ENKI’S SAKE!!”, he yelled at him and the ground started to tremble under their feet, certainly not helping poor Gunter, who started to stutter some unintelligible excuses, calm down.

“ _Dear Shinou, Gunter!_ ”, the demon protested again, totally exasperated. “I told you that I love you both and that _I don’t care_ about my career or my reputation or even my _name_ if I can have you two next to me! _That’s_ why I felt down when Anissina and I argued the other day! _For Enki’s sake!!_ How could you believe, even for a second, that it was because I loved her more than _you_?!”, he asked him in total disbelief. Then, after a pause, more calmly he proclaimed: “I will _never_ choose between you two, rest assured. It’s a promise.”, and only then he turned to Anissina too and added “A promise I’m making to the both of you.”

After that declaration, Gwendal finally reached them by Anissina’s side and, taking one of the woman’s hands in his and squeezing it, with the free one he grabbed Gunter by his chin and he fiercely and scathingly kissed him on the mouth.

“Is Anissina’s and my position about our relationship clear enough now, Gunter?”, he finally asked him, who was literally melted in Gwendal’s grip still tightened on his chin after a couple of minutes of hard-core kissing, and, in order to be even more incisive about his own position, he didn’t end to pronounce his question that he slapped him too, and pretty hard.

And after that, the white man, overwhelmed by all what happened, could only nod at him in response while hardly finding the strength for muttering a hasty as much as needy “thank you both I love you but please make me cum now!” that made the other two share a look and snicker together at his greedy and almost inappropriate plea.

“Maybe we should punish you instead…”, the redhead woman suggested with a mischievous light in her eye and Gunter suddenly froze, taken aback and surely not waiting for _that_ kind of outcome.

By the way, he soon recollected and tried again with a more convincing “please”, this time aiming at Gwendal, but the man limited himself to watch strictly at Anissina and to wait for her decision only.

“Beg for our forgiveness”, she commanded at last after a long pondering pause, “and we could decide to change our mind… am I right, Gwen?”, she asked his other lover who was wronged by Gunter as much as her and he just nodded in agreement.

So, his heart throbbing in his chest, Gunter breathed hard a few times before finally getting on his knees and lowering his eyes blurred by lust to the floor while he kissed first Anissina’s boot and, right after, Gwendal’s one.

“Please, my merciful masters”, he pleaded with all his might, his long silver hair falling over his shoulders to partially cover his face and sprinkling on the ground around him. “I beg you! Take the humble me and make me yours and yours alone _forever_. Please, mark me so that I will never forget nor doubt your love for me ever again!”, he beseeched them and it was Gwendal the one who broke the brief silence that followed Gunter’s heartfelt plea.

“ _Undress_.”, he ordered in a raspy growl and the older man was ready to oblige to his command.

He stood up again and he took his time while disrobing so that his lovers could enjoy the view, and, maybe for the first time, his gaze rested _only_ on Anissina while doing so, and, on his behalf, he enjoyed her every reaction and every slight change in her facial expressions.

And when, equally lost in him, probably without even noticing, she started to touch herself through her clothes, Gunter suddenly rushed for finally getting out of the last of his robes and then he threw himself on his knees again.

Then, frantically lifting up Anissina’s tight skirt and almost ripping apart her panties, he started to lick and nip and lap and touch the soft skin between her legs that made her a woman, and he went on until she became a squealing mess under his gluttonous care, her hands in his hair, on his head, guiding him where she needed his attentions the most.

Gwendal watched at the two of them lost in their own world until he could, his trousers an aching constriction for his briskly awakening member, but soon the whimpers and the moans that filled the room completely became too overwhelming: his self-restraint started to crumble apart and made way for the pure animal instinct inside him, which was as strong in him as his resolution and self control.

He hastily unfastened his belt and lowered his constrictions enough to finally free his groin from its cage and the instant later the tip of his member was forcefully pushing against Gunter’s entrance. In a single, slow thrust he was full in his new and gratifying constraint that enclosed him tight, and a rambling growl emerged from the meanderings of his throat and it resonated in his lover’s soul making them shake to the core in a heave of dry pleasure.

Then, after a brief pause that lasted no more than a blink of an eye, he started to move faster and faster until the three of them became a mess of limbs and sweat and moans until they reached their edges.

“ _Oh Neith!_ ”, Anissina abruptly cursed while they were there, catching their breath, her on her special chair, and them on the floor next to her, “THE BUCKET!!”, she urged them while shaking hard and trying to restrain her sudden heaves, and just a second slower than Gwendal actually was and she would have missed her target and struck him instead…

Then Gwendal pulled himself together and, after a quick kiss on both his lovers’ foreheads, he reached the door of Anissina’s lab.

“Remember to take it with you tonight, love…”, the Earth Wielder Mazoku recommended and finally he exited, letting Gunter take care of Anissina for a little while before going back him too to his own chores which were waiting for him.

 

 

...TO BE CONTINUED...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yesterday night it was 4 a.m. and I couldn't sleep. Then a sudden idea swarmed in my (sick) mind, and I can tell you it concerns Lord Waltrana...  
> I don't know when I'll be able to write about him, because he won't be between the first ones who'll be - let's say - persuaded by Lady Cheri and the three guilty ones and I still don't know if I'll be able to write about him before then, but I promise you'll see him as you've never seen him before!! *smirk*  
> A little clue: he WON'T be paired to Densham... :P
> 
> See you in next chapter...


	6. Proofs of Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here, finally, Conrad stops to be a jerk!  
> ...while a few other things happen...
> 
> I hope you'll like this new chapter!! :D

Ken checked the hour: it was after ten o’ clock, and Wolfram was finally sound asleep.

He rolled over and watched at his fiancé sleeping, admiring how his white skin glowed in the moon’s light seeping through the small window of their cabin, his blond eyelashes, his cherry lips, his slim but perfectly-built body, the line of his well-defined abs, his muscular thighs…

He was so. Damn. Beautiful.

And that perfect creature now was his and his alone.

He smiled to the night, but soon the joy for his conquest faded away from his visage and left a bittersweet taste on his tongue.

After four thousand years he felt vulnerable once more.

He gently run his fingers through the blond and still sweaty locks stuck to Wolfram’s forehead and he left a soft kiss there. Then he raised from the small bed, opened the window to air the room and only then he collected his abandoned clothes from the floor and got dressed again. About his contacts… it was late, so, for what he actually had to do and for where he had to go, he decided that he didn’t need them.

But, before leaving, he looked for a paper and a pen and wrote a short note that he left on Wolfram’s pillow.

 

_I’ll be back soon._

_I love you._

_Ken_

 

He would have liked to be there when Wolfram woke up, but he had at least one urgent matter to take care of, so he went out and knocked on the next door.

An unusual and quite annoyed “who is it?” instead of the usual and friendly “come in” answered him.

“Ken”

At the reply he gave him, the sage heard a few noises from inside the room and – peculiar! – the key turn into the lock. At last the door opened and a livid Yuuri made him enter with a hasty wave of the hand.

“What happened, Shibuya?”, the sage asked quite alarmed once he got inside and Yuuri locked the door once more behind him.

Then the Maoh went back to his bed and sat on the edge of it, over the wrinkled sheets.

“I can’t believe I’ve been _so blind_ , Ken! How could I not notice at all?! I feel like I’ve been deceived _for six years_!! I feel so stupid, Ken! SO STUPID!!”, he repeated and he was dangerously on the verge of tears – angry tears.

The Daikenja, who already sat on the bed in front of him, stood up and went to sit next to him.

He patted a hand on his knee and rested it there. Then, watching at him in the eye, he only said: “I’m very sorry, Yuuri.”, and those words remained the last ones for the next few minutes.

At the end it was the Demon King who finally broke the stifling silence fallen upon them.

“I’m thinking of sending Conrad back to Shin Makoku and of asking Gisela to join us at Caloria as soon as possible. In the end, we need time to organize the second part of our mission, and we need to wait for Sara. She’ll have enough time to join us there if we inform her now.”, he asserted a little too sure of himself for Ken’s taste, and Murata’s spectacles gleamed in the candle-light at the slight movement of his head when he looked at him, hiding his gaze.

“Yuuri…”, he mindfully started, his hand still over Shibuya’s knee, “you can’t take a decision of this caliber on a whim. Sir Weller…”

“ _I can’t go to a mission like this one with someone I don’t trust completely!!_ ”, Yuuri complained interrupting him and Ken’s features hardened at the comment, his eyebrow twitching.

“I understand your feelings and that now you are disappointed in him, but you know that he is faithful to Shin Makoku and to the Maoh – you – and, with Yozak, he knows Dai Shimaron better than anyone of us. And he is a half-mazoku, so he isn’t affected by the horyoku stones while Gisela actually is instead. What I’m trying to say, Yuuri”, he persisted, “is that you need to keep in mind _all_ of these factors before taking a decision like this one. It’s not only _your_ mission, but it’s _ours_. Take me”, he then continued in a less harsh tone, “I never liked him, but I trust his skills. He would give his life if it meant saving you, and I sincerely don’t care about his motives if it means that our Maoh is safe.”, he declared in a grave tone and Yuuri abruptly looked at a spot on the floor near his feet.

“…I’m not so sure of it anymore…”, Yuuri admitted at last after a long embarrassed silence, his face red for some not really clear reason.

Ken’s grip around Yuuri’s knee hardened and an eyebrow dangerously raised, wrinkling his forehead.

He adjusted his glasses with his free hand while asking an almost threatening: “What do you mean?” that made Yuuri blush even more and divert his eyes again.

“…I-I don’t feel like talking about it, but…”, he stuttered, uncertain, and Ken abruptly grabbed his chin with the free hand and, while tightening the grip over his knee once more, he darted a glare at him.

“What has he done?”, he menaced, but to no avail.

“…ok, Shibuya. I won’t insist, but whatever happened between you two, I’m quite sure that you’re wrong at least about his resolve about serving you and his nation. But, at this point, if you think it is better to ask Gisela to join us, write to her. She is a skillful soldier and the best healer in all Shin Makoku. She won’t be able to use her maryoku once out of Shin Makoku, but she can use a sword, and she can use herbs. I approve of her if we need a substitution – or an addition – in our team. By the way, I want Sir Weller to help us at least during the planning phase in Caloria. This way, you’ll have more time to take a decision about his future role in our mission.”, the Wise Man and tactician – and not the friendly Murata Ken – declared and his tone brooked no argument.

“…by the way…”, Yuuri started after a long, embarrassed, silence, “…after what I unfortunately overheard, I won’t ask you about Wolfram…”, and, at the remark he himself made, the young Maoh suddenly turned pink once more while breaking the silence for the second time, “but did you speak to Yozak?”, he finally asked more serious and Murata mischievously smirked while thinking back to his ‘hardcore session’ with Wolfram.

“Yes.”, he only replied, recollecting his thoughts.

“And?”, Yuuri prodded him and Ken’s expression darkened.

“I believe that, in the end, he will give him another chance, but I don’t know when, and I am not one hundred percent sure.”

“How can he be so much forgiving?”, Yuuri abruptly asked and Ken snorted in response.

“…and you’re one to talk, Shibuya!”, he retorted, and the Demon King turned slightly pink at his friend’s remark.

…he was right… Murata was right.

Maybe he only had to cool off a little…

“Tomorrow I’ll write to Gisela anyway. She’ll come with us to Dai Shimaron, but I’ll give Conrad time, and I’ll take that more time to make a decision about him.”

“…did you eat already, Shibuya?”, Ken suddenly changed topic now that the matter was taken care of – more or less, but for now it was enough, he thought – and Yuuri sheepishly looked at him.

“…no… I wasn’t hungry…”

“Me and Wolfram didn’t eat either!”, Ken went back to his usual easygoing self and widely smiled at him at that. “So, while I go back to our cabin and wake him, you can go look for the cook – a certain Alistair – and ask him to prepare something for us and something light for Wolfram. Tell him that Ken sent you, and he’ll do it even if it’s late!”, he suggested and winked at him mischievously and Yuuri frowned at his friend in bewilderment.

“And how do you know him?”, the Maoh asked Ken, but the Sage only smirked in response, stood up and left, waving a hand to his friend without turning back while exiting.

-&-

When Murata got back he found Wolfram in a gown by the still open window, his elbows on the sill, his eyes gazing at the horizon.

“How do you feel?”, the sage asked him and Wolfram finally turned and snorted at him in response.

“My body is totally sore, and I’m hungry, but I’m not sure that I’ll be able to eat anything and keep it down! I hate the sea!”, Wolfram complained, but something in his tone revealed that all the complaints were more a pose than a serious grumbling, and the glow coloring his cheeks showed that maybe the short note that Ken left behind before going out had something to do with it…

“I sent Shibuya to the cook, asking for some food for us, so we’ll eat something with him when he’ll be back. It’s better if you get dressed and, at least, if you wear your wig, even if we just have to go next-door. You never know…”, he suggested with his usual smile, and it surprised him seeing Wolfram approach him and gently curl his hands over his cheeks with affection and concern.

“What’s bothering you, Ken?”, he queried and the sage tittered and then sighed in resignation and lightly kissed him in a soft brush of lips.

“What happened, Ken?”, he asked gently, but the second later his expression hardened. “Did Yuuri finally discover that my accusations weren’t just a tantrum but that they actually were justified?”, Wolfram bitterly retorted and Ken, in response, sighed again.

“Yeah… but what really worries me is that your brother must have also acted stupid and done something he shouldn’t have… and judging by Shibuya’s reaction over the matter and his refusal of adding further details about what happened make me believe that your brother could have tried to make a move on him.”

“WHAT?!?”, Wolfram yelled, shocked, and punched the wall. “YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS!!”, he added, a murderous aura surrounding him, and Ken hided his gaze behind the glow of the moonlight on his lenses for a brief moment before replying.

“…but what bothers me is that, whatever he actually did, he angered and disappointed Yuuri so much that, at this point, he just want to send him back to Shin Makoku.”

Wolfram, at his fiancé’s words, widened his eyes and mouth in disbelief.

“…tomorrow Shibuya will write to Gisela asking her to join us in our undercover mission, but at least I was able to postpone his final decision about Sir Weller’s role in our mission until our actual departure from Caloria to Dai Shimaron.”. He made a pause. “You know that I’m not very fond of your brother, but I hope that Shibuya will change his mind about sending him back.”, he concluded and, at his words, Wolfram remained silent for a few minutes, thoughtful.

“…I’m disgusted in my brother’s behavior, and knowing now that he actually is _married_ make me even more disappointed in him.”, the natural blond confessed in a grave tone. “But Conrad is one of the two best swordsmen Shin Makoku has and he is only half-mazoku, which come in hand given that our mission is settled in the human lands. And he knows Dai Shimaron pretty much and he has still some connections inside the ranks and the court too. We may need him… it’s a stupid decision to just send him away like that…”, he commented and Ken nodded his agreement.

“It’s my point too, and that’s more or less what I already told Shibuya just a moment ago. Now we can only hope that he will listen to my advice… and that your brother won’t screw up more than he already did.”

“Do you think that it may help if I speak to Yuuri too?”, Wolfram suddenly asked, but Ken, this time, dissented.

He shook his head and suggested they just leave the situation evolve and wait and see what will come next.

“…but now you better get dressed”, the sage concluded when, with a mischievous grin drawn on his face, he opened the knot of his lover’s gown and slid his hands under the silk fabric over Wolfram’s shoulders and peeled the light robe off him, leaving him completely naked with one single gesture, the cloth laying abandoned on the floor around his feet.

At that, Wolfram’s body awakened instantly and his breath became short, goose bumps shaking him to the core in waves of deep pleasure at the light contact of his skin with Ken’s gentle fingertips exploring him in slight touches.

…sadly, Yuuri chose that exact moment of pure bliss to knock on their door advising them that he was bringing dinner.

“Shibuya, please, go on… we will join you in your cabin in a few minutes!”, Ken replied behind the closed door and, with an half annoyed, half embarrassed sigh, the Maoh just did what he was told and went back to his own room, waiting for them and hoping that their whims wouldn’t take too long…

-&-

A few hours later, in the next stateroom, Conrad checked the hour.

Since Heika left he didn’t move from his stateroom and he didn’t ask for dinner.

Now it was after two in the morning, Yozak didn’t come back, it suddenly started to rain and he couldn’t sleep: in more than ten hours the only thing he was able to do was sighing.

He felt like shit, and staying inside there was useless: he knew it, but he couldn’t find the courage to go and face Yozak until then. Not after what he did…

 _But_ it was after two in the morning, it was pouring outside and Yozak still wasn’t back, so he just put on his boots laying on the floor since hours ago and went out in search for him.

“…I assume you’re the lady’s _husband_ …”, an harsh voice asked from behind him and Conrad only turned to face the man who spoke, sat in a corner protected from the rain, but said nothing, just waiting for him to continue, because he was sure the man had something more to say and, probably, also some information about Yozak’s whereabouts at the moment. And he was right.

“She’s gambling downstairs and she’s making a lot of money too, you know?!”, he stated, but when Conrad, without a single word, was going to leave in search for his husband in incognito, the man spoke again, catching his attention and making him stop right there and turn back again to face him instead.

“You know, sir… I’m quite sure that I don’t like you…”, the stranger pondered almost to himself, but it was clear that he wanted to be heard.

“No one ever told me anything like that in _that_ fashion and to my face. You’re quite straightforward for a simple sailorman, and you are too old to be a brat, and too young to speak like that to someone who only _seems_ younger than you just out of ‘concern’, if you can actually call it that…”, he sarcastically replied, his typical mild smile usually drawn on his face totally gone. “In short, your statement was more than quite rude of you, and I’m also more than quite sure that I don’t deserve it.”

“I don’t know, but I felt like being sincere… because I _quite_ like the _lady_ downstairs, _Sir Weller_.”, he whispered the title so that no one could overhear them – even if there were no one around at that hour and in that weather – and Conrad stopped and glared at him in a menacing way, ready to unsheathe his sword if necessary.

“Who are you?”, he asked on the defensive.

“…just a cook. And a friend of the redhead guy downstairs. And you can be a noble, but I don’t like when my friends are unhappy, and I like _even less_ the people who make them miserable. And it seems you are one of those people right now.”

“Despite the fact that I surely have my guilt, he’s no saint, so you better care about your own business. By the way, given that you claim to be Yozak’s friend, I hope you won’t reveal our identities to the crew or anybody else.”

“You have nothing to fear about your secret, but you better go back to your cabin for tonight and leave him alone… oh, sorry: not alone, but with someone who really care for him.”

“And may I ask you just _how_ can you be so certain that this is _not_ the case? In fact, if there is someone who has the right to care for him and to stay by his side, that person is _me_ , so, please, make me a favor: step aside and let me take _my_ _husband_ back to our own cabin.”, Conrad stated in a menacing way, but at the end he found himself panting: it was the first time he said it out loud to someone who wasn’t Yozak: even before that same day, it was _Yuuri_ the one who insisted in using that specific word while referring to the spy, but he didn’t pronounce it, not even in front of him who already knew.

Not even _once_.

“YOUR WHAT?!”, pure shock in the man’s eyes in front of him.

“You heard me right. So I sincerely hope that you are going to do what I already told you.”, Conrad replied with one of his typical smiles drawn on his face once again, and, at this, the man just obeyed. But the brunet didn’t get a chance to make two steps that an out-of-breath Yozak showed in front of them, his stunned eyes worth a thousand words.

And at his friend’s sight, Alistair just shook his head and snorted a “seriously!?” while leaving them.

“…at least come back to sleep: it’s late and it’s raining.”, Conrad only said when they finally were alone under the pouring sky, knowing all too well that Yozak heard him say that, and he offered him his hand just waiting for a response more than for a reply.

And Yozak, still too shocked to refuse, just took it and followed him to their stateroom in a staggered silence.

“…why?”, the spy weakly asked once he closed the door behind himself, finally letting go of Conrad’s hand.

“I’m not sure…”, the brunet sighed, knowing exactly what he meant with his vague question.

“What’s your guess, then?”, Yozak insisted, his eyes full of expectations despite himself, and after a long silence Conrad decided to answer, and to answer wholeheartedly for once.

“…maybe it’s that I have nothing more to lose, maybe I was angry with that man who thought he knew more about you than I actually do…or maybe I was jealous for the same reason… or maybe again I wanted to try and see how it felt to claim my possession over you to someone who actually is _not_ you… or maybe, in the end, I just didn’t want to lose you…”

Yozak remained silent for a few minutes, still standing against the door, which acted as support for his yielding legs hidden under the long dress.

“Yozak… why don’t you come here and sit next to me for a while?”, Conrad suggested and Yozak didn’t have the heart to refuse – surely not now! – so, with wavering steps, he obliged, but no one of them spoke for a long time.

“What happened with Heika this afternoon?”, Yozak asked at last, breaking the heavy silence fallen like a cloak over them, and Conrad bitterly snickered in response, searching for the right words to describe it.

Then he found them.

“A total mess.”, he said and Yozak chortled in response.

“This reply’s totally _not_ like you!”, he pointed out and Conrad snorted.

“And yet it’s the best recap of what happened.”, he then stated in a flat tone. “The biggest load I had on my heart since the first time I encountered Suzanna Julia had been finally lifted and now I have no more regrets for the first time in too many years, but at what price…”, Conrad concluded in a deep breath and Yozak, at his romantic rival’s name, froze for a moment, but then he tried to recollect and eventually calmed down.

“What happened?”, he repeated, this time a little bit more uncertain, and after an heavy sigh Conrad confessed.

“I kissed Yuuri.”

And, even if Yozak was just as guilty as him, the knowledge of his husband’s behavior was like a dagger in his chest.

At his silence, Conrad continued.

“…I know that it doesn’t seem right said now, given that what I received was even _worse_ than a refusal, but please believe me when I tell you that the only thing I felt at last was emptiness.”, he sighed.

“I was relieved, lightened from a too-heavy load, but it felt wrong… I don’t know how to explain it better than this! …it’s as if for thirty-seven years I only ran behind an illusion, and meanwhile, like an idiot, I lost what really mattered the most”, he said, and waited for Yozak to watch at him in the eye before adding an heartfelt “ _you_.”

Yozak lost his words.

“Is it too late for us, my husband?”, Conrad asked in a whisper, and, for the first time in _decades_ , the last two words sounded sweet and caring.

“OH FOR SHINOU’S SAKE!!”, Yozak yelled and jumped on his feet. Then, giving Conrad his back in order to hide the tears that started to flow along his cheeks, he stomped to the nearest wall and hit it once with the side of his fist, hard. And then he tamped his forehead a couple of times against the wooden surface and finally there he remained, steady in that position for a long instant, his breath heavy but his heart lighter, until he felt he could speak again.

“Conrad, I hate you _oh_ _so_ _much_!! You have _no_ _idea_!!”, he stated in a broken voice. “…I HATE YOU!!”, he then shouted again, caving in on his knees, and now he hit the ground with both his fists, totally overwhelmed, the tears running wild along his face after a long time since then. “…I never ceased to love you! And the more I hated you for making me miserable day by day, year by year, the more I loved you in spite of everything, despite all your faults and mistakes!”. Then Yozak turned to face him before adding ‘his truth’, and his voice was frantic and desperate: “My love for you is a _curse_ , Conrad.”, he said still weeping silently. “I want to believe you, I _really_ want, and, deep inside my heart, I really believe you, but I already believed you _twice_ , and you _lied_ to me. You made me suffer like hell for all these years! The truth is that I don’t want it to be too late, but you broke my heart in so many ways and so many times that I’m not at all sure that I’ll be able to put it together again…”, he ended and turned his back to him once more, not feeling able to hold his gaze for much longer.

Then Conrad approached him and kneeled behind him, squeezing him in a hug and finally forcing him to turn in his arms and face him again.

“…I understand.”, he finally said, pure misery making his voice quiver a little. “I’m sorry, and I was an idiot and a jerk, but I _understand_ and I’ll pay the consequences of my negligence toward you because I deserve it…and you know…”, he made a brief pause and swallowed with difficulty, “Heika was right: I’m definitely not worthy of you, Yozak.”, he concluded in a broken voice.

“Love…”, Yozak suddenly turned at him, fear in his eyes for a single moment. Then it disappeared and transmuted into something else entirely when, in a whim, he reached him and kissed the only tear that freed itself from Conrad’s eyes away from his husband’s cheek while gently caressing him on his hair in a soothing way. “You misunderstood me. It wasn’t a ‘no’, but an ‘I’ll try with all I have, but I need time… maybe a lot of time’, and still I’m not sure it’ll work ok…”, he finally smiled at him a half but sincere smile and, despite his pessimistic words, there was hope in that smile and in his voice.

Then he kissed him again, but this time on the lips.

“By the way, so that it is absolutely clear, time alone _won’t_ be enough… I need _proofs_ of your love, so I’ll wait for you to work _hard_ in order to conquer my heart once more, and I can’t wait to watch at you while you’ll make a fool of yourself in front of my eyes and in front of the world, my dear!”, he finally laughed and Conrad heaved a sigh and, this time, he was the one who started the kiss.

“You really are hard to handle, Yozak! Sometimes you really get on my nerves!”

“You like challenges, my Captain… and I’m starting to believe it’s actually something that runs in your family…”, he suggested and started to laugh again.

“What do you mean?”, Conrad asked, suddenly wary.

“You three brothers all took after your mother, and if the first place is unquestionably Wolfram’s, I’m still not sure about your ranking, so you better work really hard in order to rank second, if what you said before is true and if you really want me back in your arms for good…”

This said, Yozak gently took a little distance from his husband after chastely kissing him on the cheek before standing up and starting to undress. “Now you better prepare for the night, because it’s pretty late, _husband_.”, he mocked him while getting to the other bed in the room, and Conrad shook his head in resignation but did what he was told without complaints and, once they were both finally under their own covers on their own beds, they went to sleep wishing each other ‘goodnight’.

And maybe, after a very long, _long_ time for the both of them, it finally would have been so.

-&-

When four days later, in the first afternoon, Yuuri’s pigeon arrived in Gwendal’s office, everything by the castle was already moving.

His mother left that same morning without further details of her destination and with the only recommendation of thinking for something to tell Delchias von Wincott in order to convince him to vote yes to the change of the law once the moment arrived: Gunter and him had another two days to decide a plan of action, but Delchias was friends with Densham and Gunter, so he was quite confident that it wouldn’t have been too big a problem to convince him.

In the meanwhile, Anissina had to write to his brother… about _everything_.

Gwendal’s thoughts wandered there and, at that, he had sudden goose bumps all over his body: he knew by heart that he would have never wanted to be in her shoes…

Densham was somewhat like a mix of Anissina and Gunter merged together in character, and an excited Densham was the perfect representation of the worst of them both taken together.

He shivered again at the thought of Lord von Karbelnikoff and finally went back to the most urgent issue that needed his attention: the Maoh’s letter in his hands.

“Gunter, here…”, he passed the paper to the other man in his office with a frown on his forehead.

“…jeez… I hoped she could stay here to assist Anissina, especially now that we discovered that she’s pregnant… what do we do?”, Gunter asked his lover with apprehension.

“It’s not like Anissina can’t take care of herself, and she has us by her side… I think that Gisela had to make her own decision. Moreover, from what you and Anissina have told me, she doesn’t seem too happy about the new development…”, the younger demon commented and Gunter, suddenly, raised from his seat.

“But you said that they’re _twins_!”, he protested. “It’s so rare for us mazoku! What if something happens while she’s away?!”

But to his lover’s complaint Gwendal sighed in response.

“…I know”, he replied in a resigned tone, “but you read the message: _the Maoh_ asked of her, so the final decision will be up to her.”, he asserted and Gunter glanced away, discomforted.

“…then I’ll bring her the letter and ask her to decide what she wants to do…”, Gunter finally stated and round-shouldered, totally dejected, he left.

-&-

“My Lady! It is always a great pleasure to have you here in the far Gyllenhaal lands!”, Lord von Gyllenhaal exclaimed showing Lady Cheri the way inside his mansion. “Your beauty shines more than ever in this humble abode of mine!”

“You are always so kind, Lord von Gyllenhaal…”, the blonde lady replied with a bright smile, but the man corrected her.

“Ludwig, please. Call me Ludwig. Now we are alone in my home, far from prying ears: there is no need for all of these formalities… am I right, Cecilie?”, he smirked at her while still studying the woman walking besides him.

When they reached his drawing room Lord von Gyllenhaal showed Lady Cheri the sofa while he himself sat down on the armchair on the other side of the tea table.

“Tell me, my lady: what brings you here to the northern borders? …I must admit that I was a little startled when I received your letter which announced your sudden visit…”, he confessed not hiding his curiosity over the matter, but the woman didn’t reply right away.

“…mmmh…”, Ludwig pondered, more curious every second to the unusual hesitation in the lady sat in front of him, “Please, forgive my rudeness, but am I right if I guess that it is for…”, he made a brief emphasizing pause, “…asking for a _favor_?”, he queried, intrigued.

Then, at Lady Cheri’s protracted silence, he dared more.

“…and a quite big one, if my deduction is correct, or else why go through the trouble of coming as far afield as here in order to speak to me when letters _do_ exist?”

“You are as clever as ever, my Lord!”, Lady Cheri suddenly exclaimed and then, contrarily to what one could have expected of her – moreover after the long pause –, she seemed to relax. “You are absolutely right. But I am not here barehanded!”, she suggested and Lord von Gyllenhaal frowned a little.

“You should know that I can’t be bought with money… and that I don’t like these kind of subterfuges…”

“I am not here with money, and, before asking for a favor from you, I am here to discuss with you an issue of which I feel very strongly about… you know, it is about a cause I would gladly like you to embrace.”, she stated in a smooth tone.

“I must admit that your speech is starting to intrigue me…”, the noble suggested, “Please, go on.”, he added, and Lady Cheri brightly smiled at him before continuing.

“At this point, I guess there is no meaning in beating around the bush.”, the blonde lady cut short, and Lord von Gyllenhaal just shrugged and snickered at her in agreement.

“Then”, lady Cheri went on, “if it is so, I have a question for you.”

“Interesting…”, he uttered more to himself that to her. “Go on… _please_!”, he added later in a louder tone and the woman smiled at him, now a little mischievously.

“What do you think about the law on unions?”, she finally asked him and Lord von Gyllenhaal frowned even more than before.

“What a peculiar question you are posing to me, my Lady! I must say that I never gave enough thought to its points in detail. I never got married and I decided to enjoy the pleasure of beauty and lust out of the restrictions of a choice of a single partner. I joined the Free Love Campaign a long time ago… I am not an activist as you are, but you, as the president of the group, should know of my position about this issue. So, why come this far only for asking me such a silly question?”, he queried, quite mystified now.

“You know… I believe strongly that the actual law is a little obsolete for the times we live in… don’t you believe so too?”

Lord Ludwig von Gyllenhaal took a quite long pause before answering back, and he suddenly got dead serious.

“Sadly I must dissent with your personal point of view”, he finally replied, “…at least a little”, he softened his previous assertion at the sight of Lady Cheri’s sudden slightly vexed expression, “I decided to live free from the cage of the institution of marriage and to take delight in the joys of the flesh, but I am also a _romantic_.”, he said and soon after he clarified his last statement: “I believe that, if you decide to get married, you also need to be faithful to that person. You can love them or not, but you need to show them respect, the respect which their position requires.”

Lady Cheri seemed to ponder about his words for a while, but at last she decided her ‘strategy’.

“What if someone happens to fall in love with more than one person at a time? And what if their lover falls in love with that same person too? Or even: what if someone wants an heir by blood and they are married to a person of the same sex? Wouldn’t it be better to permit, if their consort were in agreement with their intentions, another union, let’s say, under the same roof? At least the baby won’t be the fruit of an illicit relationship and he would be protected in law. Wouldn’t it be _more respectful_ to their consort than making it behind their shoulders?”, she insinuated and Lord von Gyllenhaal grimaced.

“You are carrying quite peculiar situations in support of your thesis… unless you are doing it because you found yourself in one of these strange circumstances and you want to preserve a façade of righteousness with your non-conventional relationship…”, he seemed to cogitate for a little while on the issue in silence before voicing his own doubts. “…even if, for someone who found herself a _human_ lover until she was still married to another man, and a mazoku nonetheless”, he pondered in an alluding tone, “it seems at least a little preposterous… _obviously_ no offense!”, he quickly added at last and Lady Cheri stiffened to his implications.

“… _unless_ you are doing that for someone dear to you…”, Ludwig added after another pause.

At the last suggestion Lady Cheri forced a smile which turned out to be quite feral, but Lord von Gyllenhaal wasn’t a person easily intimidated, and the previous queen knew it perfectly well.

“Will, knowing who it is I’m doing it for, help change your mind?”, she queried him and he smirked at her with new curiosity sparkling through his eyes.

“Maybe…”, he conceded, but Lady Cheri hesitated before replying, which made Lord von Gyllenhaal even more curious than before.

“I will tell you”, the woman finally agreed, “ _but_ you have to promise me that, if you will remain of your previous opinion and won’t support our cause in the Council, you _won’t_ reveal what I am going to tell you to anybody else, _no exceptions_.”, she stated, suddenly surrounded by a threatening aura. “Deal?”, she asked, and the man wore his better poker face in order to hide his growing interest and nodded his agreement to her conditions.

“My first son”, she finally replied and Lord von Gyllenhaal doubled up with laughter in total shock and amusement.

“NOW! _That’s_ a surprise!”, he proclaimed and wasn’t able to stop laughing out quite loudly for a few minutes.

“Lady Cheri!”, he finally stated once recovered enough from the astonishment of the news. “I _definitely_ want to see where all this mess will lead! You have my _total_ support! And now… please, talk to me about the second part of the plan: what kind of favor do you need from me and what do you bring with you? Because I can’t deny that you aroused my curiosity when you said that you didn’t come here barehanded…”, he suggested and Lady Cheri smirked at him with renewed fire in her eyes and stood up and excused herself for a moment.

Then she opened the door of the parlor and collected the painting wrapped in kraft paper that she had previously asked the servants to leave outside there at her arrival.

“It was collecting dust in Wolfram’s studio…”, she explained in a quite suggestive tone, “I thought it was a pity, given that I _knew_ ”, she emphasized, “that you would have appreciated to have it for your _private_ collection…”, she asserted and, only then, she gave the envelope to Lord von Gyllenhaal, who now was watching at the woman in bewilderment.

He opened the paper enough to see the subject of the painting and he froze.

“What does that mean?”, he hissed, suddenly on the defensive, but Lady Cheri only smiled at him feigning innocence.

“Come on: you don’t actually believe that I did not notice! …sadly for you, my brother-in-law can be even more blind and oblivious than his dear nephew, and he sure is less romantic… but I guess there’s no accounting for taste! Am I right?”, the blonde lady suggested and Lord von Gyllenhaal, at last, sighed in resignation.

“…was I really that obvious?”, he finally asked, just a little sheepish, but Lady Cheri shook her head and sympathetically smiled at him.

“I still believe that I was the only one who noticed, but who can say?”

Lord von Gyllenhaal snorted in response.

“I am not at all sure that I will be able to fulfill your wish.”, he changed subject. “He is a stern man and he doesn’t like Lord von Christ… because it is him – is it not? – one of the two other parties concerned…”, he queried and Lady Cheri nodded.

“And the third one?”, the man abruptly asked, but Lady Cheri wickedly smirked at him.

“Try and guess. I’m sure you, above all, can do it!”, she provoked the light-blond noble sat in front of her and he snorted in response.

He thought a bit about it, and then he guessed right.

“…by the way, Ludwig”, she started after a brief pause. “Nothing is sure in this controversial cause, but if there is someone who can actually succeed with him, that one is _you_.”

“Don’t be so sure about it… he doesn’t like me more than he likes Lord von Christ or Lord von Karbelnikoff… you might be more successful if you asked Lord von Radford – if he would ever join your cause – …of even Lord von Voltaire!”

Lady Cheri seemed to ponder about something when she suddenly stared at him as lost in thought.

“May I ask you a last question?”, she queried out of the blue and Lord von Gyllenhaal lightly snorted at her, but then resignedly half-smiled at the ex-queen.

“…I’m not sure…”, he confessed, but then he nodded in agreement and waited – for the worst, knowing the woman.

“Is he the one who would be able to make you change your mind about marriage?”, she asked and the man winced, startled by the bluntness of the question.

He breathed in and out in a quite resigned way.

“…who can say…”, he finally acknowledged, quoting the ex-Maoh’s previous answer to him.

Actually, denying the evidence now was futile…

“Then I’m glad I chose you.”, she declared and then, after a curtsey, she excused herself and left him there, on his armchair, lost in thought and now drowning in the overly-realistic gaze of the figure on the canvas, finally bared of the offensive envelope, in his hands.

 _Wolfram was_ so _talented: a pity that his art changed so much…_ , he thought.

The painting in his hands of the one that – at least in his dreams – was _his_ Waltrana was _no_ _less_ than perfect; it mirrored _all_ that Lord von Bielefeld was, as if Wolfram was really able to trap his uncle’s soul on the canvas…

He stared at the image in front of him, in his arms, and he gathered up his resolve: maybe it was time for him too to roll the dice and try his own luck…

 

...to be continued...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> About Lord von Gyllenhaal's first name... I searched for it everywhere, but, given that I didn't found it, I chose one of my liking. :D  
> ...in truth, this name have a story...  
> Many years ago I started to write an original story and one of the protagonists' name was Ludwig.  
> I re-watched episode 22, season 3 and after Wolfram's depiction of Lord von Gyllenhaal I knew that his name had to be Ludwig...  
> In the next chapters (two chapters, I believe, or maybe three?) you'll know him better, and I hope you'll like him as much as I do. ;)
> 
> PS: I already finished writing about this new pairing (and I enjoyed writing about them soooo much that I wrote pages and pages and scene after scene of them with great satisfaction...), but I can't post it all at once, can I? XD  
> By the way, it won't take long before next chapter. This time I'm sure ;) I'm confident that in a few days at the latest it'll be out.


	7. Mail...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end of this second part is getting nearer!!!
> 
> At the end I'll be able to split the story in 4 parts (it's settled, finally! XD), where part 3 will be set in Caloria and Dai Shimaron only and part 4 will comprehend the final vote once they all get back (and - SPOILER - Stoffel reaction to that).
> 
> The next chapters are almost done... I only need to write down a few more scenes in order to complete them. It won't take too long, I promise!
> 
> As always, sorry for my grammar mistakes, but I don't have a beta...
> 
> I hope that you'll enjoy!

 

_~~Dear brother,~~ _

_~~I have something to tell you.~~ _

_~~You need to know that I’m in a relationsh~~ _

 

_Brother,_

_I’m pregnant and I’m in a threesome with Gwendal and Gunter and I want to marry them both._

 

“AAARGH!!”, Anissina yelled while crumpling the paper in the umpteenth angry rash. Then she threw the balled up sheet of paper in a corner together with about other twenty ones scribbled all over that previously shared the same fate.

Unfortunately, she still had an entire pile of white papers on the table in front of her.

Anissina looked at them totally dispirited and then she brought her hands to cover her face in frustration.

What could she tell his brother?!

She, who had never needed to justify her actions to anyone before then, and, first of all, _not_ to his brother!

…and now she had to account for her private choices in front of _the_ _entire world_!!

She hated that situation! SHE HATED IT TO THE CORE!!

But…

If only Gunter and Gwendal didn’t discover of her pregnancy, now she would have just aborted and everything would have been perfect once more!!

If only that time she didn’t forget to……

She groaned loudly and she tossed everything that was on the table in front of her around in a fit of rage.

She raised from her chair and started to walk up and down her lab, kicking everything that stood in front of her feet. Then she hastily turned in search for the bucket lost somewhere in the mess of her lab and just threw up inside it for the nth time of that _third_ day of hell for her usually iron-stomach.

She’d never – NEVER! – felt as shitty as she felt right then!!

She snarled again, but this time she started to rummage between the mess of items that until a few minutes before were on her desk and that now just laid on the floor in search of the pen and of a sheet of paper. Then she sat back again and started writing:

 

_Brother,_

_if you value your life, it’s better that, if they’ll make you vote for the changes in the law on unions at the Maoh’s return from his mission, you’ll vote ~~ye~~ YES._

_They might decide to exclude you from the vote because I’m in a relationship with Gwendal AND Gunter and I am pregnant._

_Oh, yes: I almost forgot to tell you. It is my intention to marry them._

_So, if you really care for me as you always claim, I expect you will work for my sake in order to ~~help me~~ make me achieve my purpose._

_If you won’t be able to vote directly, I at least expect you to convince our cousin Rosamunde to vote yes._

_It will be your duty to tell her given that you have a better relationship with her than I actually have. If you want, you can ask Gwendal to help you._

_If you fail then rest assured your position inside the Council won’t be the only thing you’ll lose._

_Love,_

_Your sister Anissina – as well as your worst nightmare if you fail._

 

-&-

Meanwhile, on the other side of Shin Makoku, Waltrana was in his office in Bielefeld manor, reading and signing documents when a white pigeon tapped at his closed window, trying to collect his attention.

He decided to finish reading the paper before raising from his chair and finally reaching the animal, but the noisy creature was too loud and persistent to just ignore it, so he had to change his mind and go pander to it.

When he recognized the insignia on the small container wrapped to the animal’s paw, he loudly sighed.

 _As irritating as its owner…_ , he thought, quite annoyed.

From the little box, the blond demon retrieved the small paper, folded in eight identical parts and then tightly rolled and held like that in a red ribbon – _why has he_ always _been using_ red _for the messages he sent to him when he has been using_ white _for everybody else he really couldn’t understand!_

He spun the little roll in his hands for a while before realizing what he was actually doing and silently cursed. Then, a little frustrated, he slid the paper out of the thin ribbon, he unfolded it and finally read it.

It said:

 

_Dear Lord von Bielefeld,_

_I regret distracting you from your work, but I was asked to be the one to discuss a certain issue with you, and I couldn’t deny them my cooperation._

_Sadly, I am in the middle of the outfitting of my next art gallery opening soirée, so I can’t leave…_

_I know it is a three days’ journey to come here, but would you mind join me in my lands?_

_And, while you are at it, why don’t you come and enjoy the soirée I am working on so hard setting-up?_

_The inauguration will be on September the 15 th; by the way I would really appreciate if you might decide to come _before _that date, so that I can find the time to show it to you in preview… I still remember that you prefer to enjoy the visits_ without _too many people around!_

_I will eagerly wait to see you._

_Yours,_

_Ludwig_

_PS: by the way, I would suggest you bring your urgent work with you on your trip, because I would love to enjoy your company for a bit more than a couple of days, if you were going to allow me the pleasure and to honor me with your precious time._

 

“…that vain flirt…”, Waltrana muttered to himself when he reached the end of the short letter, a little more tense than he felt comfortable admitting. “And he even signed the letter with _just_ his name… not to speak about the _implications_ of his words!!”, he complained, more uncomfortable than upset if he had to be completely honest to himself.

 

But he didn’t have to…

 

He heaved a sigh and went back to his desk in order to collect his pen, a paper knife and a new white paper, which he cut in half, and then in half again before filling the smaller piece with the following words:

_Dear Lord von Gyllenhaal,_

_I am sorry, but I can’t leave either._

_I will inform you when my affairs would eventually leave me the time for pandering to your whims, but I fear it won’t be in the short term. So, if you really need to talk to me about anything of even a_ slightly _more importance of your vain art gallery outfitting, I suggest you come here instead._

_Kind regards,_

_Lord Waltrana von Bielefeld_

 

Then he folded the cut paper in four, rolled it and held it with the red ribbon Lord von Gyllenhaal used for his own note, he put it in the small box fastened to the pigeon’s paw and closed the window again behind the flying bird.

By the way, when he finally went back to his work, he regrettably discovered that he needed more than a few minutes in order to be able to concentrate back on his papers enough to continue from where he left when the animal arrived and knocked to his window.

-&-

“Aaah… I knew it was never going to be simple…”, Lord von Gyllenhaal mumbled to himself when he finally read the harsh answer to his request.

He went back to his desk and took the pen.

He played with the white feather while thinking about what he could reply so to make him change his mind. A few minutes passed, but the paper remained as blank as his mind.

This, until he felt he found the right words…

The next reply would have been just a short note, but he was sure that, this time, it was going to be enough to convince him.

 

_I really need to talk to you about the issue I hinted at you in my previous letter, but I also want to show you a special piece I recently acquired and that I am pretty confident you would appreciate._

_You can ask me whatever you want in return, but please, come._

 

No header, no signature, no formalities.

He folded the paper and just sent it before changing his mind about the last sentence of his short note.

-&-

Waltrana’s hand visibly trembled when he read the last line of the new message from Lord von Gyllenhaal.

He hesitated just a second before crumpling the piece of paper in his hand and throwing it in a corner of the pristine room.

“YOU. DAMN. FLIRT!”, he cursed with a rasping voice not used to yelling and slammed his fist on the counter.

Not even his nephew was able to exasperate him to this extent!

He found himself shaking and panting and it took him a few minutes to go back to a regular heartbeat, and the concern of the guard outside his office door, who suddenly entered without knocking – obviously alarmed by the sudden and unusual yelling from inside –, didn’t help at all.

“ _Out_.”, he hissed at the poor man who clearly found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the soldier obeyed on the spot giving him a low bow before withdrawing and shutting the heavy door in front of himself once again.

Then, his hands still shaking with more than just rage – even if he was adamant about _not_ acknowledging it in the slightest –, he went back to his chair and took up the pen.

 

_The only thing I want is that you leave me alone._

_Don’t waste my time._

_If, as you claim, you need to talk to me on behalf of third parties_ and _it is urgent, then leave your silly occupation to someone else and come here: I won’t mind harboring you for the time required for our discussion._

_Otherwise, don’t bother me._

_If the issue is not urgent, we can arrange a meeting in the next future._

_Here._

 

Then he hastily folded and rolled the paper in order to make it fit the small box on the pigeon’s paw and he sent his reply.

It goes without saying that he regretted using such an harsh tone the instant later… but now it was too late.

-&-

Now, _THIS_ was too much.

He could have had a soft spot for him, but enough is enough!

No one ever dared speak to him in that fashion, and even Waltrana, who was always an annoying smartass, never crossed the line of a semblance – even if sometimes dubious – politeness before then.

Deeply irritated, Lord von Gyllenhaal took the pen in his hand and started writing:

 

_Dear Lord von Bielefeld,_

_I will wait for you to come when you will find the time._

_The issue is not urgent, but it is of undeniable relevance… I don’t think that the First of the Ten Nobles would like to be_ the last one _who knows what is going on, but from now on it will be your choice, and your choice alone._

_I won’t insist anymore._

 

He then took a deep breath before adding the next few lines.

 

 _By the way, you arrogant bastard, I_ begged _you and_ still _you refused my request, not even in a kind tone._

 _For that reason, I definitely promise you that, once you will finally come here, I will make you pay for your impudence_ ten times _the outrage which I received._

 _So, please,_ kindly _wait for it._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Lord Ludwig von Gyllenhaal_

-&-

When two days later he received the answer to his – soon regretted – last reply, Waltrana’s heart almost stopped.

He soon felt the need of sitting down, and he chose his favorite armchair for sinking in as deep as he could.

As so rarely happened during his long life, he would have liked to just _disappear_.

He knew Ludwig since they were in their forties, which made more than two centuries ago, and he _never_ saw him _this_ angry before. Not with him, nor with anybody else.

_But what could he do now?!_

He used to reprimand Wolfram for his hot-tempered behavior, but he sadly proved to just be no less than him when his own innermost feelings were on the line…

He heaved a sigh, and then another, and another, and he went on like that for a few minutes searching – in vain – for a solution to the mess he started with his own hands.

“ _Damnation!_ ”, he finally hissed in frustration covering his face with his hands and breaking the heavy silence in which he had fallen in.

This time he really screwed up!

Then he remembered of an episode when Ludwig and him were young and suddenly he knew what he needed doing…

It certainly wasn’t an easy task for him, but he knew that, reached that point, he had no much of a choice anymore…

So he rushed out of the door of his office – startling the guard outside – and went out to the yard. He hastened to the hyacinths patch, picked up a single bloom from a purple-red grape-flower and only then he got back to his office.

Then Waltrana reached his desk, took the pen up and the moment later he suddenly stopped with the feather still in midair.

He soon started to nervously play with it, twiddling it from finger to finger for a little while, lost in thought.

He _never_ explicitly said it – not since _that one time_ more than a century before – and he sincerely pondered to leave it up entirely to the flower…

But, at the end, he decided that Lord von Gyllenhaal deserved those three words, at least this time.

He swallowed hard and took a deep breath before writing down:

 

_Ludwig, I am sorry._

_I am departing tomorrow morning and, in order to try to make amends for the rudeness I undeservedly showed to you, I will stay as long as it pleases you._

_Hoping that it will be enough for your forgiveness,_

_Yours sincerely,_

_Waltrana_

 

He heaved the umpteenth sigh while he gently took the single flower on his desk and wrapped it inside the note, delicately rolling the paper around it in order not to squeeze it too hard. Then he put the small envelope inside the little box and freed the bird.

…and then what was left doing was taking some time to make all the due travel arrangements in order to have everything ready by the next morning…

-&-

The travel would have taken three days by carriage, but only one day and one night by horse at full gallop.

Waltrana thoroughly considered the double option, but if, on the one hand, he wanted to reach Gyllenhaal Manor as soon as possible and make sure to placate Ludwig’s madness at him, on the other hand he really didn’t want him to think he was in a hurry, because his last reply was enough a proof of his repentance even without adding a further evidence in rushing for getting there sooner.

So that evening, before going down for dinner, he summoned his coachman into his office and ordered him to prepare the carriage for the morning later because they would have left for Gyllenhaals lands. Then, once at supper, he told his butler to inform the kitchens that he would have needed food for a three days’ journey for him, the coachman and his personal guard in tow, consisting in three mazoku soldiers whom he trained and prepared himself more or less eight decades before, when he became the head of the household and took over as a Member of the Tens’ Council at his father’s demise.

 

...to be continued...


	8. Something In Return

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now... two chapters in a row!!
> 
> (Because I don't want you to die for the cliffhanger at the end of this chapter! :p)
> 
> I really, really hope that you'll enjoy. :D

The next Monday evening Lindsey von Wincott arrived to Covenant Castle with all his belongings and, upon request of Lord von Christ, he was accompanied by his father.

At the end, the two von Wincotts just had enough time to go back to their lands and to come back again after a quick organization of whatever Lindsey could need during his stay by the castle for his tutoring with Anissina in preparation for the Academy.

Since the moment that Gunter’s letter arrived, Delchias’ curiosity roused.

It seemed an urgent matter, but, if it was urgent, why not talk to him before his departure?

It wasn’t a short trip from the Wincott lands to Covenant Castle!

Delchias had always been a lenient man, but, even if on the one hand he was curious, on the other hand he found himself quite annoyed…

“GRETA!!”, Lindsey shouted getting down the carriage the exact moment he saw the girl and he ran in her direction. He was going to hug her when he suddenly froze in place – arms somewhere in mid-air and hands that he didn’t know where to put them  – at one of Gwendal’s murderous glares thrown at him.

Delchias smirked under his sleeve at his son’s embarrassment.

“I’m sure you’ll find a better place for greeting your girlfriend as she expects you to do, my son.”, he suggested in a low voice to Lindsey so that only him and Greta could actually hear his words once he got near enough to the both of them, a knowing smile on his face and a quick wink thrown at the two youngsters… and he enjoyed their flushing cheeks and his son’s shocked complaints pretty much.

And if Gwendal’s glare soon extended to Delchias too at the pepper faces of Lindsay _and Greta_ – who rarely showed a similar reaction given the too much time spent in Anissina’s and his mother’s company –, Gunter broadly smiled at them.

“Aren’t they just _lovely_?”, the flashy demon commented in a loud voice at everybody and nobody in particular and Gwendal frowned while Delchias smiled back.

“Sure they are!”, Lord von Wincott gleefully replied. “By the way, why isn’t Anissina here? Lindsey is her student, after all… I expected her to come and greet him at least!”, he flung a witty remark and, at Anissina’s name, everybody stiffened – Greta included, which sure was a peculiar occurrence that left him bewildered.

“…hem… why don’t we leave the two lovebirds alone and we go to Gwen’s office for a chat between grown-ups?”, Gunter suggested in a suddenly nervous tone and, even if Gwendal frowned at the ‘lovebirds’, no one complained – not even Lindsey, this time, already lost in his own world now that he finally was with his Greta – and at that they finally separated.

“…is it for the Wincott’s poison once again?”, Delchias asked quite alarmed once the three of them were alone in a hallway heading to the General’s office.

At the memory of the double experience he regretfully had in the past with the said poison, Gunter visibly shivered.

“No! Luckily it’s not that!!”, the Maoh’s Adviser quickly replied, but then he blushed a little and averted his eyes. At the frivolous demon’s reaction, Delchias raised an eyebrow in a probing confusion and a growing curiosity.

“…it’s a delicate matter, Delchias…”, Gwendal murmured in a _very_ _soft_ voice, and the demon knew that the mere fact that _he_ called him by his first name and _not_ by his title was proof enough in itself that something was going on.

The white-haired man, at that, replied nothing and just waited to reach the Chancellor’s office before further investigate the matter.

-&-

“…so? What’s going on here?”, Lord von Wincott finally broke the silence after making himself comfortable on the sofa in a corner of Gwendal’s office… a sofa not very often used by anyone who wasn’t Gunter, Gwendal himself or, rarely, Anissina too.

Meanwhile, Gunter and Gwendal took a seat on the two armchairs in front of it.

“You two: what are those sheepish faces? Lord von Voltaire, I’m astonished by the embarrassment you seem to show on your usually puckered face. I can tell by that expression alone that something interesting is going on. So, spit it out. Curiosity is killing me!”, he said with a flat tone and a smile no wider than the usual one always drawn on his face.

“You sure don’t seem on the verge of death, Lord von Wincott”, Gwendal bitterly retorted, but Gunter abruptly turned at him and, at his glare, the General suddenly shut up.

And Delchias, who surely was used to scenes the other way around, where the younger but sterner man rebuked the older but more eccentric one and not vice-versa, raised a bemused eyebrow in response.

“…well, Delchias…”, Gunter started, uncertain, collecting the other mazoku’s attention on himself, “…the fact is that Gwendal and I found ourselves in a… how can I say it? …thorny? Awkward? Unusual? Situation…”, he vaguely concluded and, in the end, he just averted his eyes, a little ashamed.

“…what kind of unusual situation does require my attention? Or my help?”, Lord von Wincott suggested and this time it was Gwendal the one who replied first.

“In truth, it requires both your attention and your support.”, he stated, serious, and Delchias slightly frowned again, his faint smile – so similar to Conrad’s usual one – still on his face.

“Delchias”, Gunter started again after a long silence – pondering from their host’s point of view and embarrassed from their own – this time with more resolve in his voice and in his eyes. “We and Anissina love each other.”, he declared and Lord von Wincott, after a short moment of shock, started to giggle in amusement, his mirth quite hard but almost totally soundless.

Gwendal would have classified it as creepy if he wasn’t too distracted to actually think about it.

“I’ve always liked your romantic heart, Gunter”, Delchias finally commented once he found himself able to speak again, his usual poker face and flat voice still there. “But I must admit that I didn’t see it coming. Well, everybody knew that you had a thing for Lord von Voltaire, but Anissina! After her disillusion with him when we were young I always thought that she would have ended with another woman, or just alone like she claimed she would have been for decades. And you, _Gwendal_ ”, he called him by his name for the first time in the last century or maybe more, “…I would have never taken you for the _indecisive_ type.”, he had a not-so-implicit dig at him and Gwendal glared at the man in front of him.

He was ready to speak back in the same, harsh register, but Gunter beat him to it.

“You are wrong, Delchias.”, he stepped in. “Our relationship has nothing to do with the incapability of making a choice… in fact, if anything, it’s exactly the opposite.”, the eccentric mazoku explained. “We want each other, and we need each other. Between us it can work _only_ if the three of us are together. We can’t choose. No one of us three actually can. Maybe in the start, but now we are a single item, the three of us.”, he claimed and, after a brief pause and a deep breath, he added “And Anissina is pregnant, so our relationship won’t be kept secret for long anymore. We want to marry her, and we want to marry each other. We love each other, Delchias. We really, really love each other!!”, he repeated for the nth time and Lord von Wincott, when Gunter finally ended his tirade, actually asked himself about _when_ the scholar in front of him actually got next to him on the sofa, his hands squeezing his own against his chest with expectancy.

Lord von Wincott tittered again.

“So you want to take your case in front of the Council.”, the man stated and Gwendal nodded serious while Gunter made the same but with doe eyes.

“And given that you surely won’t be made part of the poll, you need my and the other aristocrats’ support…”, Delchias continued, still amused by the unbelievable news.

“We want to get married, so we will ask for a revision of the law on unions.”, Gwendal intervened. “And the changing would actually be useful for same-sex couples if they decide to give birth and breed an heir by blood, allowing more rights to the newborns and the extra-conjugal parent.”, Gwendal pointed out and Delchias snickered again.

“I see you studied it quite well…”, he replied in a sharp remark and, at that, neither of them spoke back.

“I’ll vote yes, but you three will owe me a favor in return. So, if I’ll ever ask for something, I expect you will comply with your debt towards me when the time comes. Deal?”, he asked while standing up, his sweet eyes and gentle smile still drawn on his face even if his words were totally another matter.

 _He was so deceiving!!_ , Gwendal couldn’t stop thinking that, not even for a second…

They nodded and Delchias, now with a slightly satisfied smile, asked Gunter to accompany him to the chambers they made prepare for him.

“I’ll leave tomorrow after breakfast, but, please, inform Anissina that I’ll go see her after dinner. After all if I’m here it’s not only because you asked me to come”, he commented addressing Gunter, “but especially for Lindsey’s sake.”, he pointed out and, once he reached the door, he waited for his longtime friend to step aside and lead the way.

In truth, he only wanted the occasion of saying ‘congratulations’ to one of his old acquaintances for his long-awaited conquest at last, for his new one and for the baby…

He hadn’t very much in common with Lord von Voltaire, so he just preferred to have a small chat with Gunter alone because, knowing the frivolous and easily-excitable man, he knew for sure that he would have gladly slipped some juicy detail and gossip during their conversation that, on the other hand, Gwendal definitely wouldn’t have approved of him knowing about them and, obviously, of his lover happily and nonchalantly sharing them with him…

But, well… Lord von Voltaire didn’t necessarily had to know about that, did he?

-&-

Meanwhile, for Lord von Bielefeld, the journey to Gyllenhaal lands turned out to be a dreadful bore, and, as if it wasn’t enough, the more they drew nigh their destination, the more Waltrana’s unease mounted and the more his only available occupation during the trip – reading – became an increasingly difficult task to accomplish.

His concentration, as much as his control over his emotions – usually so deeply rooted in his stern innermost self –, started lacking every mile they trod nearer Gyllenhaal manor more and more, and his determination began to crumble bit by bit until when, the moment they came in view of the castle, it seemed to definitely crush in a thousand pieces while the only thought that seemed to dwell in Waltrana’s head turned out to be a sudden and totally irrational need of running away.

And the clear awareness that it was _a totally new_ sensation for him didn’t help at all his feeling of fluster and malaise which _almost_ got the better of him.

What the hell it got into him at that moment he really had no idea, but, luckily enough, the few minutes it took them to finally reach the entrance of the manor turned out to be time enough for him to pull himself together once, getting out of his carriage, he showed himself in front of the servants who were there to receive them.

But, regretfully for Waltrana, another new consciousness stunned him once he took a quick look around the moment he got down the coach: his own _disappointment_ in Lord von Gyllenhaal’s absence out there to greet him – one more ‘first’ since he had known him… both ways…

“Your Excellency”, Ludwig’s butler suddenly drew his attention distracting him from his train of thought, “my Lord told me to ask for your forgiveness for his absence in his stead, but he says that regretfully he is occupied at the moment. He also told me to refer to Your Excellency that, if you would like to meet him, you can find him by the gallery in the east wing of the mansion.”

“Thank you, but please report to Lord von Gyllenhaal that it is not my intention to distract him from his work, so I will gladly wait for dinner time – which, in any case, will be in a couple of hours – to greet him. In the meanwhile I will settle in my quarters and rest a little, and I don’t rule out taking a stroll in the gardens before supper.”, he informed the man.

So Waltrana got accompanied to his chambers where he made himself at home in no more than _eight_ minutes.

After that, when he had nothing more to arrange and, hence, nothing more to do, his mind soon began to wander where it shouldn’t have been venturing. So, in order to distract himself from unwanted thoughts, he went for a walk outside even sooner than he would have expected at first.

Because he could deny it, but in truth he knew from the start that it would have ended this way…

He meandered around for more than an hour before finally setting on a bench in the place which always was his favorite spot in Lord von Gyllenhaal’s garden – a place where, on his back, loomed up a finely sculpted fountain which had as subject a bare and voluptuous woman’s body tightly hugged to a male figure of perfect and alluring features, and where, in front of him, it rose a big rose hedge which was so bushy that it completely blocked his sightline from where he was sat.

It might sound quite ordinary but, ever since he was a child, roses had been his favorite flowers, and, since the first time he set foot in that garden eighty-two years before then, he always had found the inherent contradiction inside Ludwig’s deliberate choice of mixing blood red roses with pure white ones in the hedge in front of his eyes no less than captivating.

Obviously he never voiced his personal opinion about it to Lord von Gyllenhaal because he feared that his words could easily be misunderstood as something like an advance or anything of the sort…

“… _peculiar_ finding you here of all places!”, a smooth voice coming from behind him startled him to the core and he jumped in surprise while turning to it, all his senses taut to the newcomer.

“It’s a place like any other.”, Waltrana bitterly replied but Ludwig lightly snorted in response.

“You know, this place is where I bring my preys to seduce them before taking them to my personal quarters and finally deflower them…”, he stated as if speaking of the weather and, in response to his suggestion, Waltrana took his distance from the man who just seated next to him on the bench.

“What are you trying to imply with your inappropriate remark?”, Waltrana threatened him on the defensive, but Ludwig snickered at him, suddenly amused by his ‘retreat’.

“Nothing, my friend!”, he replied to Waltrana’s sudden frustration which started to slightly redden his pale cheeks in growing embarrassment, “Cool off… I won’t disgrace you here in the open.”, he replied with a smug smile and his not-so-subtle implication made Waltrana stiffen.

“Come on, calm down. We are only having a friendly chat here. No reason to get so cocky!”, Lord von Gyllenhaal lightly laughed at him in a mischievous way and Waltrana started to feel a little dizzy in his head, but he put all his might in place in order to stay calm and hide his growing uneasiness.

Then Ludwig broke the brief silence that fell between them and completely changed topic.

“When we were young you had dozens and dozens of suitors in your tow… I sometimes wonder why you never picked one up for yourself and claimed them as yours…”, he suddenly stated and Lord von Bielefeld frowned in bewilderment.

“And since when did you start prying into other people’s personal affairs?”, he scathingly replied.

“I only said that I wondered why. I never expected you to answer me, Waltrana.”, Ludwig retorted wearing an amused half-smile on his face.

“You voiced it!”, the other one complained. “You can’t deny that, while doing it, _at least_ you hoped for an answer.”, he pointed out in a sharp tone and Lord von Gyllenhaal smirked at him impishly.

“A man can hope…”, he suggested and then he lightly sighed before going on. “But I suppose you are right. I really would like to know. So, why don’t you just answer me?”, he insisted and the moment later he added in a smooth voice a “ _please_ ” that made Waltrana hesitate for just a second.

“I can ask you a similar question, you know?”, he disdainfully retorted after a dumbstruck pause. “So, why have you never got married? This ‘Free Love Campaign’ you joined next to my sister-in-law is _beyond_ ridiculous!”, he then commented and Ludwig giggled at the embarrassment that lightly tinged Waltrana’s cheeks without him even noticing – it seemed.

“You know…”, Lord von Gyllenhaal started, enjoying very, very much the reactions that this kind of topic aroused in his usually so stern partner of dialogue, “there are _two_ main reasons which kept me away from that kind of liaison. The first one, obviously, is that I love beauty and that I love sex pretty much.”

“You are as lewd as ever, Ludwig!”, Waltrana commented in disgust and turned to the other way with an annoyed grumble.

“I will take it as a compliment, Wal.”

“ _Whatever_.”, the other man abruptly snapped, more to the far forgotten nickname than to the remark, in truth… “You know that it is _not_.”, he soon added. “By the way: you talked about _two_ main reasons…”, he suggested, trying to change topic and diverting Ludwig’s attention from his suddenly flustered state of mind.

But Lord von Gyllenhaal slowly shook his head.

“I never said that I would have told you in the first place!”, Ludwig pointed out while smirking widely and Waltrana bit his own jowl in irritation in order not to snap back at his last remark.

“You know, I never figured you for the curious type, Wal, and we have known each other for more than two centuries now!”, the prurient man commented and Lord von Bielefeld flinched again.

“JUST STOP CALLING ME THAT!”, he finally snapped full force while abruptly raising from his seat, startling himself maybe _more_ than the man sat next to him, who just frowned in a slight confusion.

“…what happened to the man always in control that I knew? You don’t seem like yourself today, Waltrana. What’s the matter? Was it something I said to you?”, Ludwig asked vaguely provocative – and surely amused – after a short astounded silence fallen between them, and Waltrana snorted in disbelief, but then he firmly denied the evidence.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Lord von Gyllenhaal.”, he replied caustic and he snorted again so to make his last statement more incisive. “You have _not_ such power over me. And now, if you may excuse me, I don’t want to be late for dinner and I need to get changed. See you later.”, he cut short and, without even turning back or waiting for an answer from his host, he just left.

Lord von Gyllenhaal chuckled lightly, still a little surprised by the unexpected outcome of their last conversation, and widened his arms over the seatback of the bench he was sat on while watching at Waltrana walking away until he disappeared behind the rose hedge.

“…how could I have been so blind as to fail noticing before now?”, he muttered to himself, still in disbelief with his own slowness.

Then, the previous light cackle soon grew in a loud laughter.

“…it seems the hunt is definitely on, Waltrana von Bielefeld!”, he challenged, declaring his intents to the four winds when he was sure that his prey was far enough so not to hear him.

He laughed again, now in kind of a sadistic way, and he went on for a few minutes without being able to stop.

“…anyway”, he finally added in a smug murmur once the guffaw faded away, his eyes feral, foretasting the sweetness of his impending victory in his mouth, on his tongue, “…a pity that I waited for more than two-hundred years, because it also seems that I’ve already won you over!”. He sighed. “…and I would really like to know since when…”, he said to himself.

-&-

Dinner time definitely arrived too soon.

It wasn’t Waltrana’s intention to get changed for the _second_ time already since his arrival, but after his last statement to Lord von Gyllenhaal he just had to.

He had to keep up appearances given that, irritatingly enough, after a century and a half of being able to keep total control over his own emotions, he suddenly found himself incapable of maintaining the usual calm around Ludwig, and he couldn’t even understand _why_ of that abrupt change!

Deeply annoyed, he took a clean white shirt, a royal blue jacket – his favorite color _and_ the Bielefelds color – with golden buttons and golden flowery embroideries on the lapel and on the cuff sleeves out from the closet in his assigned antechamber. Then he chose a pair of white trousers and finally got ready to go downstairs for supper.

However, once he entered the dining room at the established hour, only the servants were there, ready to serve dinner.

Waltrana was shown his seat by the butler and took place at one of the heads of the long table… the one facing away from the door.

He silently cursed, but didn’t show his disappointment on his face.

Then he waited for almost ten minutes without further notice of the reasons behind Ludwig’s delay – a pretty rare occurrence knowing him – and his nervousness grew more and more every minute.

_Was he still angry at him? …but Ludwig didn’t act as if it was the case when they’ve met in the garden before!_

Then, finally, the heavy doors of the room opened and Ludwig showed up.

“Waltrana!”, Lord von Gyllenhaal exclaimed, attracting his host’s attention, and when Waltrana, after a second silent curse, turned towards him in order to greet him, his eyes widened and his heart lost a beat while his cheeks turned slightly pink – obviously – against his will.

 _But he took him by surprise!_ , he tried with all his might to justify his involuntary reaction to himself, but that time he wasn’t sure he actually succeeded…

Ludwig was wearing a white long robe hemmed in gold, quite similar in its shapes to the ones Lord von Christ usually wore, but a lot more gaudy with its neckline cut to his _bare_ and pale mid-chest.

_Curse him! That robe of his should just be forbidden by law!!_

Sometimes he really couldn’t refrain himself from thinking that Ludwig and his own damn sister-in-law were one of a kind!

“Please pardon me for being late, but I had to arrange a few small last details before dinner could be served. Anyway, I hope you will appreciate my efforts…”, he suggested feigning not to notice his host’s reaction to his willingly provocative attire and Waltrana slightly frowned at him in response but, lost speechless, he just decided not even to _try_ finding a suitable reply, in the vain attempt to keep what remained of his self-control intact.

“Today I have a little surprise for you.”, Ludwig continued at Waltrana’s protracted silence and the man in front of him looked at him in aware bewilderment.

“Gerald, please…”, the landlord called his butler and the man made a gesture to another servant, who, a moment later, arrived with a covered tray and positioned it on the table in front of Waltrana before removing the lid.

“It’s…”

Waltrana watched at Ludwig for the _first_ time in _open_ surprise and confusion.

“Yes, I’ve had it made ready just for you, and judging from the look on your face, your tastes didn’t change in the last two centuries…”, Ludwig commented and Waltrana, this time, couldn’t refrain from blushing hard, flattered.

“…yes… but you didn’t have to… you don’t even like it, and it’s not something you easily find in your lands… and certainly you didn’t have to go out of your way to this extent when I…”, he stopped mid-sentence and his face reddened even more, this time in open _guilt_.

But Ludwig lightened the atmosphere and just smiled at him in response.

“Then just eat it and enjoy it to the fullest!”, he replied with clear expectance and satisfaction in his eyes, and Waltrana, still a little flustered, fought with all his might in order to remain calm and, at last, after more than a minute of vain attempts, he recomposed himself enough for his – new, irritatingly _lower_ – standards.

Then, with a slightly self-conscious but surely proper “Thank you”, Waltrana finally served himself and, before eating, he waited for his host to fill his own plate with something more of his taste while an embarrassed half-smile involuntarily drew on his usually stern face.

“My pleasure, Waltrana. My pleasure.”, Ludwig repeated while, with a smug smile drawn on his face, his lips caressed the rim of his wine glass.

When, at last, they both finished, after a bit of small talk there by the table, Lord von Gyllenhaal suggested they moved to his private parlor for a drink.

Waltrana, on his behalf, after the long and stressful day, was starting to feel really tired and he would have liked to refuse his offer, but after Ludwig went out of his way just to please him and make that dinner prepared _especially_ for him, how could he even think of refusing his hospitality?!

So he followed him through the hallways of the big mansion until he abruptly stopped, everything around him suddenly starting spinning around and his view blurring.

“… _Ludw_ …”, he muttered, his breath short while he tried to reach to his arm for support, and the last thing Waltrana remembered before passing out was a firm grip around his chest trying to backstop him from falling, and sharp, amber eyes which were looking at him with a strange light inside them…

As if he wasn’t surprised at all…


	9. Working On Your Mind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I'm a pervert... XD
> 
> I started to love Waltrana - and Lord von Gyllenhaal - so much that when I started to write about them I just couldn't stop... At the end it was so easy writing about him! It was like having another Wolfram but more resilient and more disillusioned... and more controlled... well, not Wolfram at the end, but you'll recognize the similiarities with his nephew (I hope! XD)  
> In short, I hope you'll like them as much as I do!!

When Waltrana started to regain consciousness, he felt as if his head was going to split in two.

Hoping that applying pressure on his temples could actually help reducing the penetrating ache, he attempted to lift his arms and bring his hands over his head.

But he found resistance.

In a daze, he forced himself to open his eyes in order to understand what was actually happening.

It took him a few seconds before he was actually able to focus, but, when he realized what was going on maybe _in the worst_ way possible, panic took over.

He was tied to a wooden armchair, ropes tightly wrapped around all his chest, his arms, his wrists, his legs and down to his ankles, his palms up maybe so that he couldn’t burn the chair under him and possibly free himself. And he dramatically had a perfect view over his own condition thanks to a human-size mirror placed _exactly_ in front of him.

Then, as if the sight of his own captive state wasn’t humiliating enough, next to the mirror, nicely placed on a chair, there was a painting he knew all too well and that he had no idea what it was doing there and _how_ Lord von Gyllenhaal ever was able to acquire it in the first place – a beautiful portrait of him that Wolfram painted a few decades before and that he always refused to give away, even to him who was the subject of the painting…

He breathed in and out with always more difficulty given his constricted state, until, after the first shock wave finally passed, pure fear transmuted into pure rage.

“ _LUDWIG!!_ ”, he roared once and, at the loss of a ready answer, he howled again. And again. And again. His voice rougher and rougher every time Lord von Gyllenhaal’s name made its way through his throat not used to yell.

“No need to shout. I’m here.”, Ludwig replied in a calm voice at the _tenth_ time Waltrana called, finally revealing his position, attentively planned in advance in order to find a blind spot from his prey’s point of view.

Then, approaching him slowly, Lord von Gyllenhaal finally reached Waltrana and whispered into his ear a soft and alluding “… _right behind you_ ” that made him joggle and, horrifyingly enough, that left him shivering with a thrill he really, _really_ didn’t want to investigate further.

“WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!”, he replied in a threatening tone, which the real intent was of allowing him to ignore his own last thought and striking sensations. But being held captive, tied to a chair, made his menace far less intimidating than it sounded like.

“What do you think?”, Ludwig retorted and Waltrana just snapped.

“GREAT AGNI! ALLOW ME THE POWER OF SAMVARTA, THE FIRE THAT DESTROYS, IN ORDER TO PUNISH THE EFFRONTERY OF THIS MAN WHO DECEIVED YOUR HUMBLE SERVANT WITH THE LIE OF A FALSE HOSPITALITY!”, he yelled with all the force of his outraged pride.

So, with his pray, Waltrana evoked his fire familiar spirit, a blood red peacock as big as an armoire, of the same blood red color of the roses in Ludwig’s yard and of the ribbons with which the man had always tied the letters meant to him.

“HOLD DOWN, WALTRANA!”, Lord von Gyllenhaal suddenly shouted back and, with just Forochel’s name – the god of the northern ice – he then evoked his own animal guide, an ice and translucent snow-tiger with eyes as blue as the deepest and coldest seas.

Without further hover, the beast charged and attacked the majestic fire peacock.

Within seconds the two animals collided and, with a sudden bursting sound, the ice tiger instantly sublimated into hot water vapor, but not without totally consuming, in the instant reaction, the flames forming its enemy.

Then, after the total annihilation of the menace in the room, Ludwig broke the heavy silence that fell upon them.

“I don’t deserve your unfair accusations.”, he protested in a steady voice, and Waltrana, momentarily oblivious of his own condition, had the presence of mind to raise a skeptical eyebrow and to snort to Lord von Gyllenhaal’s statement.

“You dared _drug_ me and _bind_ me while _unconscious_!”, he ranted in disgust to what he considered an _inexcusable_ affront, “How can it ever be an _unfair_ accusation?!”, he blamed him, still incredulous to his own ears. “ _Seriously?!_ ”

Then Ludwig took a chair in a corner of the bare room, he brought it in front of Waltrana, turned it backwards and then straddled it, his elbow on the seatback and his open palm holding up his chin.

“You wronged me first. Remember?”, he pointed out, calm but hostile.

“This ‘treatment’ actually _can’t_ have anything to do with a few words sounding a little bad, can it?! _Really_!!”, Waltrana complained with darting eyes, but Ludwig just snorted and lightly shook his head in dissent.

“Oh! _That’s_ an euphemism!”, he retorted, sarcastic. “Do you have the slightest idea how much it cost me to write that sentence to you?! I _begged_ you, for Shinou’s sake!! And do you even remember your words in response?!”, he harshly asked to the captive man.

“And do you have the slightest idea how much it cost _me_ to tell you that I was _sorry_?! I only pronounced those three words _once_ in my entire life before writing them to you, and it was to _my_ _father_ , after _fifty_ whiplashes in the courtyard in front of everybody, servants included. And I _wasn’t_ even in the _wrong_! _And now: untie me._ THIS INSTANT!”, he commanded, pissed as hell, but, in front of him, Ludwig didn’t even flinch and continued to watch at him calmly.

“No”, he finally said after a pause, but it wasn’t a pause for pondering, and Waltrana frowned and grunted in disbelief.

“What do you mean with ‘no’?!”, he spouted harshly in no more than a hiss.

Lord von Gyllenhaal just shrugged.

“Exactly that.”, he replied and then, after another brief pause, he finally decided to clarify his own point.

“You know, I really appreciated your words of repentance as much as the little flower, like that time when you accidentally wounded me during a show-duel many, _many_ years ago; and surely, after your previous explanation, I now value them even more than I did before!”, he said with a sympathetic smile drawn on his face, but, soon after finishing saying that, his expression darkened as much as his voice. “By the way, Waltrana”, he continued, “you crossed a line you shouldn’t have to, and I _don’t_ forgive easily.”, he stated as a matter of fact.

Then his tone went back to a lighter one and he smiled at him again.

“Oh!”, he uttered as if he suddenly remembered something important to say. “And it obviously goes without saying that I am a man of my word!”

He smiled at him once more before shadowing again. Then he explained his last statement too.

“I told you that I would have paid you back _ten_ _times_ your impudence towards me, and I will pay you as much as I promised. No more”, he made another pause for emphasis, “ _no_ _less_.”, he concluded in a menacing hiss, and at the last two words Waltrana could not bring himself not to slightly flinch.

“Wal, Wal!”, Ludwig, at that view, finally smirked at him once more and, after a brief glance, he suddenly asked, totally amused: “Is it _fear_ , by any chance, what I see into your eyes?”

Then he laughed hard and he slightly moved away from Waltrana’s sight line.

“Please, my friend, watch at your image into the mirror in front of you and, after studying it well, answer me. Is it?, or is it _not_ fear the one thing I see in there?”, he solicited, suddenly stern.

“Ludwig… you are crazy…”, Waltrana whispered, shocked by his sudden realization, but the man in front of him just frowned a little and, with a patient sigh and now a totally new attitude from before, he shook his head in disagreement.

“No, dear! No!”, he replied, almost resigned. “I’m not crazy at all, I can assure you that.”

Then, this time after a _long_ pause, he sighed and, for the first time since Waltrana’s nightmare started, Lord von Gyllenhaal averted his amber eyes from the grass-green ones studying him now in bewilderment… and Lord von Bielefeld had to admit that he was being at least a little startled by the new sudden – and _first_ – change in his captor’s attitude that really _didn’t_ sound crazy since he woke up tied to a chair.

It was the time of a blink of an eye, and the hesitation that Waltrana undeniably read in Ludwig’s eyes just vanished, replaced once more by his frivolous self.

“…Waltrana”, Lord von Gyllenhaal finally started again, “I’m just a vindictive person. I usually don’t bother enough to really get angry, but _you_ exaggerated and, hence, _you_ were the one who brought this on yourself this time. _And you know it_. Don’t you?”, he concluded in a grave and accusing tone, and, at last, the only thing Waltrana could do at that was sighing in resignation.

After a very long and heavy pause, Waltrana slightly nodded in response.

“…yes.”, he confirmed at last, mortified, because he knew from the start, in truth, that Ludwig was right about that point…

“…my fault…”, Waltrana added, “and I _am_ sorry for my behavior towards you”, he admitted, and it wasn’t easy at all, for him, to just leave his pride aside and to voice his own mistakes.

“I shouldn’t have been so rude in the first place.”, he finally sincerely proclaimed. “By the way, after that ‘treatment’ you reserved for me, I can assure you that I learned my lesson. I _promise_. But now just untie me. This act went a bit too far. Don’t you agree?”, he tried to talk some sense into him, but Lord von Gyllenhaal sadly smiled at him in response.

“I must dissent, sorry.”, he replied at last slightly shaking his head and Waltrana stiffened again.

“If I didn’t go so far”, Ludwig continued, “you would have _never_ understood the extent of your grievance against my person.”

Then Lord von Gyllenhaal took a deep breath before going on.

“ _You wronged me_.”, he declared at last, and the intensity of the hurt in his voice that slightly distorted even _his features_ made Waltrana lose a heartbeat.

Then the light-blond man stood up, at last totally disclosing Waltrana’s view over the human-size mirror in front of him, and slowly moved to the half of the room behind Waltrana’s shoulders, where the captive noble couldn’t directly reach him with his gaze.

And now that Lord von Bielefeld could no more fix his eyes on the other man in the room, his gaze – until then fully focused on Ludwig’s face because he found it being the lesser evil – finally fell upon his reflection in the mirror once again.

He stiffened once more in front of what he saw, because, if, when he woke up and watched at his reflection, what he saw was only panic at first and then rage and humiliation later, now he could clearly see, drawn on his face, his own acknowledgment of Ludwig’s verdict for his behavior and, _even_ _worse_ , his own _acceptance_ of the punishment that he chose for him.

It was a really slow process, but he gradually and progressively started to feel as if he really _needed_ to be punished.

As if he deserved it all… and to the point that it even started to seem _logical_ acting he himself as executioner of the guilt sentence.

For that reason, even if the first moment he took a glimpse of his own portrait he had decided that he wouldn’t have looked at it a second time, he slowly turned his eyes at its direction, and a brief look soon became a long and intense stare.

Later on, his eyes turned back to his own reflection, and the view of his miserable state, in total contrast with the perfect representation of a glorious and prideful him depicted right there, in front of his eyes, left him shivering.

Not even once in his long life he thought that, one day, he would have found himself in such a situation, tightly tied to a chair, with an expression like that drawn on his face, his own cheeks now tinged in an alluring dark shade of pink – so much in contrast with his usually pale skin like Wolfram’s painting so perfectly depicted – his own lips fuller and redder than usual…

He unconsciously tasted his lower lip with his tongue before lightly biting it, and suddenly he felt his own body start to react in a way he would have _never_ imagined possible before that very moment… and certainly _not_ in a situation like that, so much compromising, and so much in discord to his usual need of feeling in control of everything happening around him.

It was in that precise instant, when his lower half started to slowly awaken and he _fully realized_ what was happening to his body, that he noticed that, through the mirror, he actually _could_ _see_ Ludwig, who, judging from the smugness leaking from his smile and the knowing look in his eyes, might have been there for quite a long time, watching at him, staring at him, studying him and his slow change through his reflection in the glass…

Because he _knew_ that his growing arousal was being betrayed by his own eyes – he could see that in the _damn_ mirror he couldn’t take his eyes off from!

A new sense of panic abruptly got the better of him.

He felt naked in front of Ludwig, and, even if he already accepted his own guilt, even if he already accepted the man’s verdict for his own unjustified rudeness towards him, he just couldn’t stand that feeling.

He couldn’t accept it!

He flushed furiously in deep embarrassment and he cursed, this time no more in his own head but in a feeble voice. Then he swallowed hard, trying with all his might to just calm down a little, to try to ignore the aching awareness of Ludwig’s gaze upon him… to try to make his damn penis understand that it really, _really_ wasn’t the moment for acting on his own accord!

…if only Ludwig could leave him alone!

His gaze just…… no!

Nononono!

_NO!!_

Waltrana abruptly closed his eyes shut, strongly refusing to accept that the mere thought of Ludwig watching at him was able to make the lower half of his body _fully_ awake and aware of his presence.

…but with his eyes closed, his other senses roused and his compromising position worsened even more: now that his attention was no more in what he could actually _see_ , in fact, the _feel_ of every rope, fastened around his body, all over his chest and painfully tantalizing his nipples through the clothes every time he breathed, or the ones grasped around his arms and his legs, and again the sudden aching tightness of his own pants constricting his now throbbing member in a painful cage, became agonizingly strong… so much that he felt he was horribly getting near his edge… and it was happening too fast!! Too fast to control himself before it was too late!!

As soon as that realization wormed its way inside his head and under his skin he widened his eyes open again, strongly hoping, that way, to fix his grave miscalculation.

Obviously it wasn’t enough.

And having his crush there, doing nothing, saying nothing and just watching at him in complete silence was literally _killing_ him.

He swallowed hard, his mouth dry… his _throat_ dry.

 _Dear Shinou! For Anki’s sake, calm down, me! Please!_ , he prayed inside his head with all his might, but at this stage of downfall even _he_ knew that it was useless.

He deeply abhorred even the mere thought of showing Lord von Gyllenhaal his own vulnerability, but –damned if he actually was able to! – he just couldn’t hide it.

No more.

He tried, and tried really hard to send that feeling away, to bury it somewhere deep inside his heart! …but it stayed there, on the surface, as if it was mocking him, laughing in his face!

Waltrana raised his gaze enough to cross his eyes again with Ludwig’s through the mirror, but soon after that attempt he lowered it once more.

_Damn body of mine!! Just stay put!! You can’t really want it!!_

Waltrana yelled in his head a command – a pray – even if he knew from the start that it would have been disregarded.

He almost cried in frustration, but still Lord von Gyllenhaal didn’t move.

He only watched in silence, and it was _agonizing_!

“JUST STOP STARING AT ME!!”, Waltrana finally yelled out loud when he couldn’t stand any more pressure than what he already received until then.

But still Ludwig did nothing at all, and his gaze never faltered, either for a second.

“WHAT KIND OF GAME ARE YOU PLAYING, LUDWIG!?”

Still, only silence answered back at him.

“DAMN!! JUST ANSWER ME!!”

Still no response.

“ _LUDWIG!!_ ”

…nothing again…

“ _FOR SHINOU’S SAKE, LUDWIG!! UNTIE ME NOW!!_ ”

Waltrana cried out loud in a howl once more, his throat hoarse, and he ended up coughing pretty hard.

He deeply breathed in and out trying to bring more air to his lungs, but the ropes were too tightened up around his ribcage and, this last time at least, Waltrana seemed to have asked too much to his own body.

When he finally recovered and glimpsed back at the mirror he literally freaked out.

_When did he get so near?!_

“STAY AWAY!!”, he shouted. “DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH ME!!”, he replied to Ludwig’s approaching, more frightened by his own reactions and by the responses of his own body to a contact with him than by Ludwig in himself.

“AGNI!!”, he then cried out when he saw that the other demon just ignored his threat, and two fireballs suddenly formed over his open palms and started to grow.

But, in that same instant, Ludwig’s hands closed around the captive’s arms in a firm grip, his long fingers deeply and painfully stuck in his flesh through the clothes.

Less than five seconds later, Waltrana’s fireballs shortened again until they finally vanished into thin air while he found himself screaming in pain before being able to even understand what was going on.

Actually, Lord von Gyllenhaal just interrupted the supply of fire from his chest to his hands cutting its paths through his arms.

In aching astonishment Waltrana looked down and found his hands to his fingertips bluish, but the cold feeling and the ache like a thousand pin-pricks under his skin extended from there to his armpits.

He tried to move his fingers but he miserably failed, so, after a brief moment of panic was finally over, he tried to concentrate in order to feel his inner fire flow to the frozen extremities and re-establish a continuous supply of energy and a regular blood flow.

It wasn’t much given the pain he went through, but sure that ‘small inconvenience’ helped finally calm him down while sending his inner ‘fire’ elsewhere.

“…why are you doing all this? What do you want to accomplish?”, Waltrana whispered in a raspy voice after a long silence, somewhere between resignation and exhaustion, looking into Ludwig’s eyes through the mirror for the nth time. But this time he didn’t falter.

He was too exhausted even for that.

“I already told you, Wal.”

“No, you didn’t.”, he slightly shook his head, totally worn out. “It’s not just that. I can tell. Your eyes……”, he started, but then he changed his mind. “Untie me, Lud. This is enough.”, he sighed. “I’m begging, so you can untie me now.”

Ludwig remained silent for a few minutes and the only thing he did was staring at him through his reflection from behind him, so near and yet too far now that he was no more touching him…

Then, finally, in a whim Lord von Gyllenhaal surrendered to the temptation and raised a hand, gently reaching a blond lock on Waltrana’s nape, and started to play with it, soothingly twirling it around his forefinger, his amber eyes still locked with the reflection of the grass-green ones inside the mirror.

While doing that, the back of Ludwig’s fingers slightly brushed against the flushing skin of the tied up demon’s ear, and Waltrana winced a little at the light touch.

But now he was too exhausted even to think too.

He just closed his eyes and this time, at last, against every better judgment and every previous attempt of denial of his inner needs and desires, he abandoned himself to Ludwig’s touch.

 

Ludwig had won.

 

It passed a long instant – which could be minutes or years, Waltrana really couldn’t say – before Lord von Gyllenhaal finally broke the calm silence that enclosed them.

“Why did you never get married, Waltrana?”, Ludwig asked for the second time of the day in a soft tone, serious but, at the same time, as if lost in thought.

And now it was Waltrana’s turn to remain in silence.

“Answer me, Waltrana.”, he insisted, but in a soft, smooth voice, and, after a brief moment, Lord von Bielefeld just snickered in response, slightly amused by the sudden role reversal, even though he still was the one tied to a chair.

If he weren’t so much exhausted by now he would have found the situation almost exhilarating: the captive that became the master-player!

“I am serious. Answer me. Please.”, Ludwig asked once more and Waltrana snorted one more time to his persistence.

Then Lord von Bielefeld firmly watched into his eyes, and a whirlwind of emotions passed behind them in an instant.

Now it finally was _his_ turn to take the lead!

“…kiss me and you’ll know…”, he suggested and it suddenly was Lord von Gyllenhaal’s turn to chuckle, totally caught off guard by the proposal.

“I’ll definitely do that. You _do_ know that I will, don’t you?”, Ludwig retorted, as if unsure for a moment, and Waltrana laughed hard at his unexpected indecision coming after when, just a few instants before, he was sure that Ludwig had finally won.

…it was clear now that he had been actually wrong…

But what, in the end, shocked Waltrana more than anything was the admiring look in Ludwig’s eyes in that exact moment, and the almost deferential gesture while he slowly approached him, the care seeping through his gentle touch of his fingers under his chin…

By the way, the sweetness of the act lasted just a brief instant, because, the very moment their lips finally connected, an abrupt and feral hunger took hold of them both, together, and the kiss became rough and untamed and violent, full of ruthless bites while Ludwig squeezed Waltrana’s jaw with a hand and harshly pulled his golden hair with the other one, his fingertips dug into his flesh, unmerciful.

It was a mess of groans and hungry moans until, after a moment that could have just been lasted hours, they broke apart from each other in the attempt of catching their breaths.

Waltrana felt dizzy in his head, and the ropes impeding him the simple act of breathing didn’t help him recover.

“Untie me, I can’t breathe.”, he panted, and this time Ludwig unsheathed the knife he kept inside his boot and was ready to cut the ropes when he abruptly stopped, the dagger in mid-air, at Waltrana’s words.

“By the way…”, the still held captive man started in a disenchanted tone, “you _do_ know that that kiss is _all_ you’ll have from me, don’t you?”

A shocked silence answered to his last remark and Waltrana snorted at Ludwig’s reaction.

“You don’t really expect me to give myself to someone as promiscuous as you, do you?”, he asked with a soft incredulous snicker to the other man’s awe, and Ludwig’s expression hardened, but still he kept silent.

“…now, please, just untie me, Ludwig.”, Waltrana spoke in a flat tone. “It really is enough.”, he stated. “I can stand no more of your disrespectful behavior towards me. I acknowledge my fault towards you and now you had your revenge. That’s all: nothing is left unsaid or unsettled. We are even.”

But Ludwig’s expression hardened even more in a menacing aura and a soft, mad snort left his throat.

“ _You’ve got to be kidding me, Waltrana!_ ”, he declared threatening but still flabbergasted, and Lord von Bielefeld could clearly see bemusement into the eyes in front of him.

Now Ludwig had no more power over him, and certainly not now that Waltrana was, finally, once more in control…

“Oh, please, Ludwig! Don’t disgrace yourself more than what you already have! You can’t believe that you would have had me in the first place!”, he snobbishly laughed and that infuriated the other man even more, who just grabbed him by the collar and pulled him so hard that he almost knocked him over together with the chair.

“You know what?”, Waltrana continued still snickering in feral amusement to his brutal reaction – so not like him! – now a few inches from his face, “What is totally hilarious is that _you_ are the reason why I so strongly _loathe_ people like you!”, he stated and Lord von Gyllenhaal just frowned in bewilderment and let go on his grip.

“Don’t be so shocked!”, he chortled at him. “What else could you expect me to think of you when I ‘accidentally’ discovered of the execrable conduct and low moral of the man I was in love with?”, Waltrana accused him and, at those words, Ludwig froze.

Then Waltrana continued, a bitter and sarcastic tone in his voice and in his harsh words.

“I believe you _can’t_ be able to fully understand my chagrin and displeasure when, while seriously thinking of finally confessing to you after three decades I just hided my true feelings, I happened to be made part of _a very detailed report_ of your performances in bed with _three_ people at a time.”, he blamed him, the thought of that episode still too vivid in his memories for his taste, in spite of the foregone years. “And do you know _why_ I was made part of that conversation in the first place?”, he ruthlessly asked in a rhetorical question and didn’t wait for a sign on Ludwig’s behalf before continuing. “Because, given the relationship that, at the time, I had with you, they were _sure_ that I too had some piquant comment to share with them.”

A long, heavy and stunned silence followed Waltrana’s last revelation and it went on for a few minutes – minutes that just felt like hours.

The still captive man glared at Lord von Gyllenhaal with disdainful eyes for all the time, but, once the shock passed and his head started to work again, Ludwig finally found the words… the only right words he could find… and he resolved for the only act that actually had any chance – small as it might be – of making Waltrana change his mind.

And he knew all too well that if that didn’t work, he just wouldn’t have had a second chance.

“Do you know why, Waltrana, I became like that? Do you know why I started to lay with so many people in the first place? _Do you know why I never got married?_ ”, he asked in a crescendo of emphasis with a sudden as much as strange resolve in his voice that made Waltrana frown in bemusement.

“ _Do you know why?!_ ”, he repeated at the loss of an answer from the blond captive, and he sounded angry for some reason Lord von Bielefeld wasn’t able to identify.

“I thought that I couldn’t have you.”, Ludwig finally declared in a sharp hiss at the other man’s protracted silence and Waltrana _paled_ , not expecting an answer like that at all.

“You started to refuse my company, to ignore me, to avoid me _far before_ I finally decided to lay with others in the hope of _forgetting_ _you_! And do you know what actually _is_ hilarious?”, he bitterly asked, a mad snort coming out from his throat. “THAT IT NEVER WORKED!!”, he soon after ended in a yell and he was so frustrated that he didn’t even notice that he raised his voice so much. “And at the time I was just too young and inexperienced to recognize your behavior as shyness! I even started to think that you just hated me, and even if I asked myself about the reason of your hatred so many times in these two centuries, I had never understood why… And no wonder after what you told me now!”

An heavy silence replied to that new revelation, this time on Ludwig’s behalf.

“Waltrana…”, the older demon started again once he calmed himself a little and he heaved a sigh before finally raising his arm and making something that left Waltrana without words and without breath: he _slapped_ him.

“I love you”, he voiced at last, “…I _always_ loved you, since I first laid eyes on you when we were still children”, he explained his act, “and now that I know for sure that you love me back I won’t accept a refusal from you. I want you and I swear that I will have you no matter what or how. I _promise_ that you’ll be mine somehow.”

And Waltrana, half embarrassed, half guilty, lowered his gaze and slightly shook his head, tired and sadly disillusioned by life itself.

“…we are no more children, Ludwig…”, he then replied in a heartbreaking tone, “and we are not the same we used to be anymore.”.

He made a pause before going on because, even if he knew it was the right thing to do, it still hurt, and it hurt very much…

Then he went back to look into Ludwig’s eyes.

“Knowing that you love me too doesn’t change the person you are now as much as it doesn’t change the fact that I despise people like you the most.”, he declared.

“I can’t trust you.”, he soon explained in a flat tone. “I can’t trust your faithfulness towards me when you accustomed yourself to lay with other people and take pleasure in the flesh of a different beautiful man or woman every time you feel like it.”

He heaved a sigh.

“I just can’t accept it.”, he stated, resigned to the truth. “I’m sorry, but the scar you – unconsciously as you might have done it – left me with is _not_ something I can erase on command.”

He took another short pause.

“I am the faithful type”, he said, “and I can’t stand the continuous doubt of my partner’s unfaithfulness towards me as much as I can’t stand the humiliation of people thinking that I’m a gullible person who can’t control his own husband’s behavior.          
…I’m not my nephew”, Waltrana added, trying to clarify even more his own point of view on that matter, “I don’t have his resistance towards those kind of circumstances.”, he explained. “If Wolfram is someone who can menace his lover for reining him in but wouldn’t be able to actually harm them, I myself wouldn’t be so kindhearted.”, he concluded in a harsh and grave tone and finally diverted his eyes from Ludwig’s amber ones once more.

Thus he stared at him again wide-eyed at Ludwig’s ready reply.

“What if I tell you that I’m ready to pay _with my life_ if you’ll ever find out that I’m being unfaithful to you from now on? Would that assurance be enough of a guarantee for you to change your mind about this matter?”, he asked dead serious looking straight into Waltrana’s eyes with strong resolve.

“I wouldn’t hesitate – not even for a second – to take it as you suggested in the case of even a single _doubt_.”, the blond captive confirmed his own last assertion of not being a compassionate person at all, but Lord von Gyllenhaal didn’t answer back and just continued keeping up his gaze, never faltering, not even once.

A long pondering silence from Waltrana followed and Ludwig just waited calmly for his response: he knew he was asking him nothing simple to accept, because they were too different one another in the first place and Waltrana had always been a very strict man.

Then Lord von Bielefeld closed his eyes and finally heaved a sigh in resignation.

“…untie me and I promise you that I will think about it properly.”, he avowed, and Lord von Gyllenhaal finally obliged to his request.

Thus, when he got free at last, Waltrana stood up from the chair and, all his dignity back once more, barely suppressing the urge to rub his own hands over his sore body where he was sure that the ropes had left deep burns all over his skin, he just slightly nodded at Ludwig and he finally took his leave without further acknowledgment of his new suitor’s _existence_.

-&-

Waltrana didn’t remember how he reached his own chambers: his mind was actually too busy trying to keep up an appearance of total composure in his posture and features while walking back to the privacy of his own quarters.

“Marcus, you’re released from your duties tonight. Goodnight.”, he cut short addressing the guard out of his rooms who was waiting for his return as Waltrana always disposed.

The man let a soft surprised gasp slip from his lips given that the sudden request of being left alone during the night and, first of all, _out_ of Bielefeld’s manor was _a_ _first_ since he started working for him almost a century before. But then he bowed and just obeyed without complaining.

Waltrana, still in a sort of a trance, opened the heavy doors to his antechamber and entered.

When the door was finally closed shut behind him and he was sure he was finally alone, his breath became heavy and his nervousness hit at him all at once.

His legs suddenly caved in and he fell on his knees in a shaking and panting mess.

His hands trembling hard, he finally stood up again and almost ripped off his own clothes until he remained completely naked in front of the mirror over the wall.

There were red rope-burn marks all over his body.

He raised a hand and slightly touched the one over his other wrist and he suddenly _stopped_ shaking.

He traced the other marks up to his arm with his fingertips and followed his hands with his gaze, enraptured, his breath fast and short.

He slowly reached his shoulder and then he descended through his chest.

When, unwittingly, his fingertip lightly brushed over one of his nipples, he closed his eyes and gasped in surprise at the sudden wave of pleasure that spread through his entire body and finally fully awakened his naked and already half-stirred arousal.

How long had it been since the last time he indulged in masturbation?

He thought about it while slowly tracing his abs, down and down, and then the skin around his navel, until he reached the bush of blond hair adorning his manhood in its full magnificence.

“ _Years…_ ”, he mumbled while finally enclosing his member in a firm grip with sudden impatience and he growled, all his senses shouting an ‘ _at last!_ ’ to his so long-lasted negligence shown towards his own innermost needs.

It wasn’t as if he never woke up in the morning with an erection or as if he never had wet-dreams, but in the first case he always just waited it to pass on its own, and in the latter, well… not even once he remembered his dreams when he opened his eyes!

So, actually, it had been ages since the last time he willingly touched himself with the sole intent of giving himself pleasure.

And for the first time since _that_ time of the unwanted ‘chat’ in Covenant Castle, he finally allowed himself to think of Ludwig while indulging in self-pleasure.

 

 

...to be continued...


	10. When A Private Matter Becomes A Matter Of Politics

The morning later, at breakfast, it was as if nothing had happened between Lord von Bielefeld and Lord von Gyllenhaal the previous night.

Waltrana’s composure was no less than perfect, his face stern as always.

When Lord von Gyllenhaal entered the dining room ten minutes later than usual, sure that Waltrana wouldn’t be there waiting for him, he had to confess that he was dumbfounded when he discovered that he guessed _wrong_.

He knew him, _but_ _still_ …

“I’m sorry that I made you wait… I must admit that I took my time this morning because I was sure that you wouldn’t show yourself for breakfast…”, he confessed a little appalled.

Waltrana frowned slightly and snorted.

“There was no reason for me to miss breakfast, the most important meal of the day.”, Waltrana retorted in a snobbish tone and Ludwig lightly chuckled.

“…I suppose so. I should have known better, should I not?”, he asked, not going through the trouble of concealing his admiration now that he already lay all his cards on the table.

“Yes, you should.”, Lord von Bielefeld bitterly replied, but the mere fact that he was there _now_ was meaningful enough. “By the way, Ludwig, I came to your lands for a reason. I expect to have the details about that ‘important matter’ – as you said it was – after breakfast, if it is all right with you.”

Ludwig heaved a sigh.

“Then I suppose that my other commitments will have to wait.”, he stated, defeated. “We will go to my office when we’ve finished eating.”, he asserted and then they spent the rest of the meal in silence.

-&-

“So? What’s all that commotion about?”, Waltrana prodded once he took a seat on the armchair coated with red brocade in front of Lord von Gyllenhaal’s desk no more than a quarter of hour later, “And also: _how_ did you acquire that painting?”, he asked, totally changing subject and showing in his voice more interest than he initially intended to.

At the last question Ludwig couldn’t conceal a smug smile.

“It was a gift…”, he suggested, deciding that answering to that was easier than trying to find the words for the first question; but Waltrana raised a skeptical eyebrow at his reply.

“From whom? I’m quite confident that it wasn’t a gift you received from my nephew, and I don’t see _why_ anyone would give a painting of mine to you.”, he sullenly retorted, but his cheeks grew slightly pink and he could do nothing against it.

“You know: I was as shocked as you are now the moment I received it, because I had no idea that someone could see through me _that easily_ … but it seems they have a very good instincts about love matters…”

At that comment, Waltrana suddenly paled.

“ _The Sage?!_ ”, he asked, a fleeting glint of panic in his eyes at Ludwig’s suggestion, but it vanished in an instant.

Lord von Gyllenhaal burst out laughing in response.

“Oh Gods, no! …but well: I guess that after the new development with your nephew, yours was a more than plausible assumption to make!”

At Ludwig’s words, Waltrana visibly appeased and the other man chuckled at his reaction.

“I think that I will never understand your prejudices against him, Wal. He definitely isn’t a bad person, you know? I saw you were quite bothered about Wolfram and him, but I know the Daikenja enough to be able to tell you with sufficient certainty that the interest he is showing for your nephew is more than a fleeting whim. I’ve never seen him act like that before… not even for the ones with whom he slept more than a few times. If I were you, I would give Wolfram a little more credit for his choices and decisions…”

“I give him so little credit for them _precisely_ because I know him. You seem to forget about the six years’ engagement with the Maoh… he has this _unhealthy_ habit of falling in love with the wrong person, and I hate seeing him suffer for nothing!”

“And you seem to forget about the Maoh’s speech during last Shin Makoku’s festivity…”, Ludwig retorted. “By the way, Waltrana”, he continued getting more serious. “Love is _not_ nothing – as you seem to understand quite well even if you continuously try to deny it –, and he fell in love with two great individuals this last two times: the strongest and most powerful Maoh in our history since Shinou’s time, and the great Soukoku no Daikenja, the man who lived for more than four thousand years, Shinou’s right-hand man in person, the Wise Man… and he was able to touch their hearts. You must be _proud_ of him. And, once he will be back from his mission, I suggest you show him a little more consideration and faith in his judgment, because he really deserves it, you know?”, he advised him and Waltrana, after a long pondering pause, sighed in response.

“…I suppose you are right”, he heaved another sigh before going on and then he added, as if speaking to himself: “I never feared anybody in my entire life… anybody _but him_. I don’t know why either, because he clearly is an ally… maybe our _strongest_ ally. But he is so old and disenchanted and manipulative and, on the other hand, his appearance is so deceiving…”, Waltrana got just a little overheated while explaining his opinion, but it was enough for being deeded unusual for him who was always so collected and stern over everything: he wasn’t one who showed his weaknesses to anybody, much less he was anyone who openly spoke about them! “He seems so harmless and friendly with his smile always drawn on his face, but his eyes… they are _so old_ , so _dark_ …”

Then Waltrana suddenly stopped and grumbled, as if realizing only then what he was saying out loud and remembering that he was not alone, just talking to himself.

“…and I have no idea why I am telling you all of this!”, he asserted with a second snort. “So, I guess we can go back to our previous issue”, he changed topic with the same nonchalance than as if his previous words had never been pronounced in the first place. “If it wasn’t the Sage – and clearly it wasn’t Wolfram either – then _who_?”, he asked.

“…yeah, clearly it wasn’t Wolfram”, Ludwig chuckled back at Waltrana’s remark. “Since that one episode –how long ago was it? Sixty years? Seventy? – when he _really_ needed to be punished and I spanked him because you refused to do what it needed to be done in order to teach him a lesson, he doesn’t seem to like me very much… so, maybe, it would be better if we keep the fact that now I’m the one who have one of his paintings a secret from him…”

“And why are you beating around the bush, Ludwig? You should know how much I hate these kind of games. Who was it that gave it to you?”, he insisted starting getting annoyed but maintaining his imperturbable mask.

“Your sister-in-law.”, Ludwig confessed at last after an emphasizing pause.

“That. _Bitch_.”, Waltrana swore before being able to stop himself at Lady Cheri’s name and Lord von Gyllenhaal chortled at the unusual invective out of his mouth. But since the previous day, Waltrana started showing him a side of himself that he usually hided in front of people, and Ludwig really couldn’t complain about it… on the contrary, he felt quite flattered by it.

“…you shouldn’t speak like that about our previous Maoh, you know?”, the host commented with a grin.

“ _Why?_ ”, Waltrana only asked in response, deeply annoyed.

Ludwig smirked.

“Because, as our previous Maoh, she still deserves some respect from us, don’t you believe? And also: it’s quite rude to speak like that about a lady and, in your case, about _family_ …”

Waltrana rolled his eyes in total exasperation and then he darted his most upset glare at him.

“…ok, ok! Just kidding, Wal!”, Ludwig tried – and failed – to defuse the atmosphere a little. “I’m getting there… it’s not that easy an issue to talk about with you.”, he declared. “In truth, it’s quite thorny…”, suddenly his voice became grave and Waltrana raised an eyebrow, growing quite impatient.

“I’m listening…”, he asserted almost threatening.

Ludwig moistened his dry lips.

“…I know it might sound strange to your ears, but I really don’t know where to start…”, he admitted at last after a long silence and Waltrana frowned at him in surprise: he couldn’t remember _a_ _single_ _time_ that Ludwig didn’t know what to say!

His gaze, from menacing, became puzzled and softened a little.

“What’s the matter?”, he finally asked, _almost_ gentle.

“The fact is that Lady Cheri asked me to keep for myself the real reason that moved her sudden interest for a revision of a certain law during our next meeting of the Council…”

“What law.”, Waltrana abruptly went back to the threatening attitude, his eyes suddenly darting, an eyebrow dangerously raised in a hostile frown.

Ludwig averted his gaze for a second but he looked back at him before answering in a grave tone.

“The law on unions.”

Waltrana abruptly raised from his seat and slammed his open hands on the table in front of him.

“SHE’S DISGRACEFUL!!”, he yelled, disgusted. “What has she done this time?! She and her _damn_ Free Love Campaign! She brings shame on all of Shin Makoku with her behavior!! _She is the previous Maoh, for Shinou’s sake!!_ She has _no decency_!!”, he literally blew up in a fit of rage.

“…please Waltrana, calm down. As I previously said, it’s not _that_ easy this time…”, Ludwig stated with a sigh in a calm tone and the other aristocrat stopped and watched at him in bewilderment.

“What do you mean?”, he asked with a deeper frown wrinkling his forehead and Ludwig sighed again.

“Let me tell you that we risk a civil war if we don’t change that law, Waltrana. We already have a vacant place in the Council…they may become three or, in the worst case scenario, _four_. And there are many noble families ready to fight for a place inside the Ten’s Council, and, maybe, ready to overthrow the entire Council and take our place. And you know that Stoffel is waiting only for an occasion like that to get rid of us. He already tried a putsch during the last war, and that’s where we lost Lord von Grantz’s support.”

Waltrana inhaled and exhaled slowly and deeply and finally sat back again, regaining his composure.

“I deserve to know what’s happening if those are the risks we are going to face.”, he stated and Ludwig just nodded.

“I think so too…”, he agreed but then kept silent.

“So?”, Waltrana urged after the too long hesitation.

“…I guess a threesome is going to be made public soon…”

Waltrana burst out laughing.

“We have two very fitting examples of quite _immoral_ behavior in you and even in our previous _Maoh_ , so are you sure that you are not overreacting? It’s not as if anyone tried to expel you from the council. Made exception for Lord von Spitzweg, but, well… I guess he represents an exception in himself…”

“Well… it is quite sad that I’m the one saying that, but I’m not a very influent figure inside the Council, and well, Lady Cheri is our previous Maoh, chosen by Shinou in person through his First Priestess…”

Waltrana frowned again, now more serious.

“…who is involved?”, he asked again, more perplexed every second.

“Two of the subjects _nearest_ to the Maoh”, he declared and Lord von Bielefeld’s eyes widened in surprise.

“…a… _threesome_ , you said? …so the story about Lord von Voltaire’s elopement with Lady von Karbelnikoff wasn’t just a story!?”, he snickered, still shocked by the revelation. “ _Voltaire_! That _frigid workaholic_?!”, he chortled, somewhere between hilarious incredulity and disgust, and Lord von Gyllenhaal smirked back at the remark.

“Hark who’s talking!”, he retorted and Waltrana responded with another snort and a slight wave of his hand that seemed to say ‘just shut up, none of your business’.

“By the way, Wal”, Ludwig changed subject, “I see that your insightfulness is better than I thought it was!”, he commented and Waltrana, foregone the brief moment of amusement, shook his head in dismay and covered his face with a hand while heaving the umpteenth sigh.

“I don’t like it.”, he stated at last. “No, in truth I really _hate_ ”, he corrected himself the moment later, “the mere thought of something like that, but I understand the implications behind this vote…”

Then the stern mazoku stood up and, with a slight bow, he headed for the door: he needed to cool off.

Still, when his hand was already on the handle, he turned his head back to Lord von Gyllenhaal and, right before opening the door, he murmured a resigned: “It was very astute of her to ask _you_ of all people to tell me about that…”

Not a smile, a wink nor any other slight gesture, but it was Waltrana they were talking about!

Ludwig knew that Lord von Bielefeld had gone out of his way with that unexpected remark and he knew him enough to be aware of the fact that it wasn’t a comment said on a whim.

He smirked in bedazzlement to the once-more closed door of his office and to the void that Waltrana left behind.

Maybe he had to wait, but after Waltrana’s last words, now he was almost sure that there was still hope for them…

…and it seemed it was easier than he thought it was convincing him to support that cause…

Time to write to Cecilie and inform her of his – practically – full success!

-&-

An hour and a half after Densham received Anissina’s letter he was already on the move, heading to Covenant Castle, and two days later he was there, apprehensive as always towards everything concerning his sister.

When a guard arrived to Gwendal’s office to announce Lord von Karbelnikoff’s imminent arrival, he ordered the man to go look for Gunter and to tell him to go greet the guest at the entrance while he went personally to tell Anissina of Densham’s arrival.

He knocked at her lab door but received no answer. Then he suddenly remembered that, since last week, at that hour, she was at the library with Lindsey and Greta, tutoring them.

“Anissina!”, Gwendal rushed in and Lindsey literally jumped from his seat, gaining himself a glare and a frown from the man and a snicker from his girlfriend. “Your brother is coming, so you better come downstairs and greet him.”, he declared and a sudden panic passed cross her eyes and soon vanished.

“As you can see”, she stated in her voice high as usual, “I’m busy at the moment. Send Gunter.”

She seemed self-confident as always, but both Gwendal and Greta could sense that it wasn’t the case.

“Anissina…”, Gwendal started with a frown and an annoyed sigh, but Greta beat him to the draw before he could continue.

“It’s already late, Anissina, so we can continue tomorrow! I’m sure you can’t wait to see your brother, so you better go! I’ll take care of Lindsey for the rest of the day!”, she evilly smiled at the two grown-ups knowing that, in that situation, they couldn’t retort or stop her; then she transmuted her smile from evil to bright and turned to face Lindsey. She raised from her seat and extended a hand to him. “Come!”, she urged him and the boy flushed deeply but took her hand and stood up too. “Let’s leave the grown-ups’ matters to the grown-ups!”, she smirked again and the moment later she was dragging Lindsey along with her, out of the room, under Gwendal’s astonished and Anissina’s annoyed eyes.

“…geez…she’s growing too quickly! One of these days I’ll have a chat with the young von Wincott…”, Gwendal commented with a sigh. “By the way, it seems you have no more excuses now…”, he added to the lady next to him, and, taken one of Anissina’s wrists, he dragged her along to the hall.

“Gwen, you tend to forget that Greta is human.”, she said while walking next to him through the hallways once she freed herself from his grip. “And, as a matter of fact, she’s already a _woman_! By the way you can rest easy, there’s no risk of scandals. Lady Cheri and I already taught her all that she needs to know.” She reassured him with a pat on his shoulder and accomplished the exact opposite.

“…then I think I will have a chat with Lindsey _today_ ……”, Gwendal sighed resigned before collecting his thought over the most compelling issue once again: Densham.

-&-

“Anissina!! My dear sister! How are you feeling? How is the childbearing going on? What does Gisela say? Everything all right? And how did she take the astounding news? Is she happy she’ll have a new brother or sister? I can’t wait to see my nephew!! When will the baby be born? OH ANISSINA!! I’M SO HAPPY!!”, Densham shouted in one breath and tightly hugged her, ecstatic for the news.

“OH!! Just shut it!! And unhand me! Why won’t you mind your own business, brother!? You seem fixated with my love life and me since we were children, but still you haven’t found anyone for yourself! Why don’t you stop behaving like that and start minding your own life instead of annoying me? Also: you shouldn’t be here but in Rochefort lands convincing our cousin to support us!”

“Anissinaaaa!! You’re so cold-hearted! I rushed here because I was worried about you!”, he complained, but he couldn’t add anything else that the redheaded woman interrupted him.

“I’m tired of you men! I really can’t stand you around me anymore! Always trying ordering me around and prying your noses in my affairs, with the mere excuse that you are worried about me and that damned creature – or creatures if Gwendal is correct – growing inside of me and making my life a living hell! I swear that if _all_ _of you_ – and Gwendal”, she suddenly turned to the other man standing next to her in the courtyard in front of the main entrance, “you and Gunter are included in that! –”, she specified, “don’t stop right now to annoy me with your unnerving and suffocating attentions, I’ll abort! And if Gisela won’t help me, I’ll just do it myself with my own two hands! Honest!”, she menaced and then turned around giving the two men the shoulders, and when they both tried to stop her simultaneously, she shot them a murderous glare that shut them up completely.

But she took just a few steps from them that she abruptly came to a halt, as if remembering something important, so she turned back and addressed his brother.

“I expect you to leave right now – and you can choose if you want to go alone, but I’ll be grateful if you’ll take with you one _or both_ of my noisy men – and to go pay a visit to our dearest cousin Rosamunde.”

“But Anissina---”, her brother tried to complain, but she shushed him with another darting glare.

“SHOO!! You can come back _when_ you’ll succeed with your mission if you really need to. Until then, you can stay away from me.”, she declared and Densham threw himself at her sister, hugging her while loudly crying for her blatant coldness toward his own blood.

“Don’t be so hard on me, sister!!”, he begged her between tears, “I just love you! Why can’t you be a little bit gentler towards me?!”, he whined, but she shed him off.

“I love you too, but now unhand me and just leave me alone, please. Or else.”, Anissina, exasperated, threatened him and finally left the two appalled men standing there, totally dumbstruck by her even worse than expected reaction to her brother’s sudden – but, knowing him, not at all unexpected – visit.

“Don’t mind her words too much”, Lady Cheri suddenly joined her son and Densham in the courtyard. She came back that same morning from Gyllenhaal lands and she saw Lord von Karbelnikoff’s carriage approach to the castle from her window. “She normally has a bad temper, and pregnancy just tends to make it even worse. Just leave her alone. She’ll be fine, and you’ll be better too a little bit farer from her temper tantrums. Believe me.”, she widely smiled at them and tightly clasped Densham to her chest in order to comfort him enough to make him stop weeping, and Lord von Karbelnikoff just hugged the woman back, accepting her kindness without complaints, under the eye of an exasperated and sighing Gwendal. “You better do as she says, and Gwen, you better arrange everything and leave with him. I’ll take care of the castle while you’re away.”, she concluded after a few minutes of motherly cuddling the younger of the Ten Nobles.

Her son, at her suggestion of taking care of the castle, deeply frowned.

“Mother?”, he queried, suddenly worried. “You don’t need to take care of it! There’s Gunter for it. I’m sure that he’ll be more than willing to run the castle while Lord von Karbelnikoff and I are away.”, he cautiously uttered but the previous queen of Shin Makoku raised a skeptical brow at his son.

“He’ll be away too. I just finished talking to him about it, and he’ll be leaving tomorrow morning for Radford lands.”, she explained with a patient grin and then left too after a light pat on the shoulders of the two men, who could only watch at her back with a resigned sigh in response.

And Gwendal, in his mind, already started to prepare for the worst for when he would come back.

 

 

To be continued...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait... I hope you'll like this chapter!  
> Finishing this part is becoming more difficult than I previously expected, even if there are just this and another chapter only...  
> I really don't know when I'll be able to write the last chapter, but I hope it won't take too long...  
> I'll try my best, but I can't assure anything, sorry... In part I'm losing a bit of motivation and it can be really annoying sometimes to write in a language that's not my own 'cause I have to check for words and idioms every two seconds and still sometimes I'm not even sure if what I write is actually correct, in part I'm already a bit projected to the next part, and in part real life is standing in my way... but it's just one chapter left for part two, so I hope you'll be patient!
> 
> Btw, I love you for reading my story! :) Honest! But if you'll stop by and leave a comment I'll be glad! I'm really curious to know if you liked Waltrana's side story, because I loved to write about them and I'll like to know your opinion about it, 'cause there are only a few of stories about Waltrana and I think it's a real pity! Am I the only one who loves him even if he's a son of a bitch?! XD  
> And I'd love to know everything else you liked, and even what you disliked or think that needs changings - 'cause maybe I can adjust those parts a little and make them better!  
> Obviously, without an english beta (or just a beta) you'll continue to find grammar mistakes, and for that I'm really sorry, but even if I try with all my might it can't be changed...  
> Well, I'd also like to have a native comment about my english, because I really can't judge it myself... After almost 100k words it's a bit easier for me to write and it seems to me that I'm getting a little better, but seriously, I can't be sure... and I seriously would like to know.  
> So, please, if you have a few minutes, stop by and leave a comment! I'll love you even more! <3


	11. Everything Is Settled

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know you can't believe to your eyes! XD  
> Sorry for the toooooooo long wait... I really didn't know how to write this last chapter, and I actually was never in the mood for thinking about how to write Lady von Rochvall and Lord von Radford... so I delayed so far....  
> And, now that the chapter is finally finished, I feel a little sorry for all of you who waited for so long, because I actually enjoyed writing it pretty much.......... XD
> 
> I hope you'll like this last chapter, and that you'll decide to continue follow me in the third part of the Roll in the Wind series. So, for now, please enjoy this last chapter here! :D

Gwendal could be a very, _very_ patient man: he was actually _trained_ to patience after having to deal with his own mother, his little brother, Gunter and Anissina his whole life; but after _seven days_ spent pent-up in a carriage with Densham von Karbelnikoff, if they didn’t arrive soon – where ‘soon’ certainly was an understatement of the meaning he was actually giving to the word in his head – he really couldn’t guarantee for his – hopefully? Well, if there was a point in all this story which he was still uncertain of, that surely was the part concerning the man sat next to him – future brother-in-law’s safety.

“Densham.”, he tried to catch the other’s attention attempting – as it sadly seemed – _in vain_ to stop his incessant chatting. “Densham… ehm… Densham……”

“ _Densham!_ ”, he roared then the _fourth_ time and this once, _finally_ , Anissina’s brother seemed to have taken notice of the fact that he was trying to communicate with him. “Please, seriously, _please_ ”, he repeated in a hiss, totally exhausted and exasperated, his teeth clenched together and slightly gritting. “stop rattling on about _everything_ that crosses your mind. You gave me a headache!”

To that it followed an awkward moment of silence during which Densham seemed utterly _shocked_ by the reprimand on his account, given that he was – obviously! – doing it for the sake of both of them, but the peace lasted less than half a minute, because the redhead soon started with a profuse bunch of excuses that far too quickly became a new wave of blather, now about the reasons why he was actually doing it for him more than for himself.

If only he hadn’t agreed with Gunter, who also had to go in their same direction, to make him leave by horse instead than with them by carriage in order to cut the time that they would have had to leave the castle in his mother’s and Anissina’s hands alone, now he certainly wouldn’t have been in that situation, but before leaving it had seemed to be the best choice.

Now, after _seven whole days_ in Densham’s company in a too cramped space, he was no more as sure about it as he was at first, because he was really starting to go crazy…

 _‘By the way, what got into me the moment I agreed to go with him_ by carriage _instead than with my own horse I really have no clue, but if I actually know anything at all, that’s that I’ll regret this choice to my grave!’_ , Gwendal thought, at his wit’s end, and he passed the next two hours and a half until they – _finally_ – arrived to Rochvall Manor while contemplating all the possible ways he could make the man shut up _indefinitely_.

All that in order to preserve what little was left of his own sanity.

-&-

On the other hand, Gunter had pondered the hypothesis of leaving with one of his guards in tow, but had decided otherwise in the end so not to importune them and twist their already full schedules.

It goes without saying that he had started regretting that decision after less than an hour he had departed.

It even crossed his mind to turn back while he wasn’t still too far away from Covenant Castle and take at least Dorcascos with him; but the man’s wife’s tantrum he had to endure together with the poor man the last time he left for a journey with him in tow made him change his mind and continue for his path…

After all, he actually _could_ afford to travel alone: even if he accidentally were ambushed by any scoundrel who, for any reason, didn’t happen to recognize him just by taking a look at him, he was still confident of his own skills to overcome any potential adversities along the way.

“ _AAAAH!! Soooo booored!!_ ”, he dramatically chanted while getting off his horse in the middle of the third day of travel (of more or less five at full gallop) to reach Radford Manor and letting himself fall on the ground on his back. After all, he was in the middle of the forest and thus no one was around, so who cared if he would actually have decided to indulge a little in his grievances or if he would have had to take away a little grass or a few leaves from his (obviously tied in a firm bun for the travel) hair before finally resuming his journey?

After all, it was very long since the last time no one was around him in the open air, and he missed a bit this kind of freedom he couldn’t allow to himself if he wanted to keep his perfect and ethereal image intact…

In that position, he stretched his arms and legs and then he rested there, his hands behind his nape while absentmindedly watching at the clouds in the sky.

After a while he was there, suddenly he remembered a game he used to play when he was a little child, and that Gwendal liked a lot.

He didn’t know why, but he actually had a little power to wield the winds even from _before_ making a contract with ( _all_ ) the Gods of the skies, and it actually was a pretty rare occurrence in children since more than a couple of millennia before his birth… actually, it was as much rare as half-Mazoku half-human children with powers…

His parents – as much as many others along with them – used to call him a prodigy for that, and for that same reason they had sent him away when he was just _ten_ instead of at least seventeen, in order to make him start to get trained right away.

So they had sent him to Covenant Castle under the Maoh’s tutelage, where his own uncle, Gilford von Christ – who later became also Gwendal’s personal tutor before academy time – lived, in order for him to be taught – and obviously _trained_ – by him there.

A small sigh crossed his lips and he smiled to the sky with a little of nostalgia for the time of his childhood, silently thanking Shinou and all the Gods for his gift, because it actually gave him the chance to know Gwendal.

Then Gunter raised his arms as if attempting to touch the sky and focused on a big white cloud just above his head.

“So long since the last time I played with you”, he spoke to the clouds. Then he started to move his hands in the air, as caressing the sky with his fingertips, and the cirrus above his head got molded by the graceful movements of his digits and changed shape many times.

“It’s a pity that Gwen is not here… I’m sure he would have enjoyed the little show…”, he sighed and indulged in that since-then-far-forgotten pastime for the next half an hour or maybe more, before getting back on his horse and finally taking the road again.

-&-

“So, tell me, Lord von Voltaire.”, Lady von Rochvall started once the three of them got into her office, her elbows on the desk in front of her and her fingertips linked with each other while her facial features were a perfect mirror of what was just pure anticipation. “What brought you here, in these faraway lands, together with _my cousin_ ”, and she just knew the irony of that combo, “after so short that we actually met each other at Covenant Castle?”

“Rosamunde…”, Densham tried to step in, knowing her – let’s call them – kinks far too well; but a darting glare from the woman made him shut up on the spot.

She just liked the idea of having the high and mighty Lord von Voltaire practically at her mercy _too much_ for letting his cousin spoil her fun before being able to enjoy the sight of him squirming under her ‘little interrogation’ at least just a little…

Gwendal hardly held back a sigh before answering.

“We came here to discuss a certain issue that might become a bit thorny for a few of us in first person once the news will get into the public domain, and for the entire council – let’s say – in the long term.”, he deliberately remained as vague as he could, and it was precisely that vagueness that caught all of Rosamunde’s attention in less than an instant.

“I’m all ears…”, she suggested and just waited to listen more…

“Rosamunde, you see…”, her cousin attempted to take the floor once more, but this time it was Gwendal the one who stopped him while slightly raising a hand.

“Let me, Densham.”, he asked in a low voice and a firm tone.

“But Anissina sent _me_ to speak to our cousin in her stead—”, he retorted, catching this way, totally involuntarily this time, Lady von Rochvall’s interest even more.

“It’s my business, so let me do the speech.”, Gwendal persisted.

“I would really appreciate it if you might finally decide to quit your chit-chat between yourselves and let me in on this interesting little-big secret of yours, you know?”, Rosamunde suddenly stepped in with an annoyed as much as impatient snort.

She just _hated_ secrets or, more precisely, secrets from which she was kept out of the loop, and her patience over certain matters just happened to be a little scarce from the beginning…

So, in the end, Densham gave up and, with a very deep and resigned sigh, he finally popped himself against the seatback of his chair, his arms crossed over his chest, and definitely went against his own nature while deciding to just shut up and let Gwendal do the said speech.

“I’ll be frank and direct”, started Lord von Voltaire after a deep breath. “Anissina, Gunter and I are in a love relationship and Anissina is pregnant.”, he cut short, and Densham could swear that he had _never_ seen such an expression on her cousin’s face as the one she actually had right that instant.

And there were many words able to represent her actual state of mind at the moment, but maybe the most fitting one, knowing her, could be ‘speechless’. Because _no one_ ever saw her speechless before then, and certainly not to that extent and for so long!

“I gather that you might be able to see the political implications about all this situation when the news will inevitably spread, even without me telling you about them…”, Gwendal went on after a brief pause aimed at leaving her the time to process the information she just received.

A mystified “indeed” was all she seemed able to reply to his last statement for a long time.

“We are planning to ask the Maoh to review the actual law on unions at his return to Shin Makoku after his mission in Shou Shimaron.”, he concluded, but Lady von Rochvall seemed still unable to think straight, even if, at least, she seemed to have regained her speech.

“ _What a crack trio!_ Can you really last more than a few months together?!”, she not very politely blurted out at the stoic man – who, by the way, after that stunning news, actually lost much of his stoicism at her eyes…

Gwendal flinched, evidently not expecting to ever receive a question of that sort about _that_ matter.

“Rosamunde! How can you ask him something like that! Have a little faith in th---”, her excessively romantic and idealist cousin stepped in again, but he got shushed by Gwendal’s words.

“Actually, for us it can’t work in any other way or in any other _combination_ , so our plan is to legalize our union. But, for doing so, we need a revision on said law, and that’s the main reason that brought us here today: we need as much consensus inside the Council as possible, otherwise at least Lord von Christ and I, if not your cousin too, will have to renounce to our positions. And I don’t need to tell you that when the vacant seats might become three or, in the worst case scenario, even _four_ , all at once, Lord von Spitzweg would be ready to try another putsch like the one during the war, and a seat at the Ten’s Council might be quite tempting for many minor noble families… especially now, with a Maoh still in training and Gunter and me, his tutors, ‘finally’ out of the scenes… You understand, don’t you?”, a dead serious Gwendal concluded and Lady von Rochvall, at that, could only heave a sigh and agree with him.

“…seriously, Gwendal”, she started at last, literally exhausted, addressing him by his first name for the first time in ages – but, actually, he was going to become part of the family, a way or another, so maybe it was owed… “I never figured you for being such a romantic, and surely I would have never guess something like that for my cousin.”, she commented.

Gwendal didn’t answer to that and Rosamunde just sighed again.

“You don’t give us much of a choice, you know?… by the way”, she added after another brief pause, starting to softly laugh up his sleeve for the irony of all that matter, “… _congratulations_.”

-&-

On the other hand, Gunter had reached Radford Manor.

“Hello, brother!”, a woman with the same hair color and facial features of Gunter greeted him with a large smile and a sweet expression drawn on her face. “My husband is a little busy right now, but you can greet him later at dinner. Now, please, come inside and make yourself at home! I want you to spend with me as much time as possible since it’s so rare for you to visit!”

“Sylvia!”, Gunter left his horse to a servant and, with a wide happy smile in return, he ran to the woman who was standing by the entrance of the Manor and who was just a couple of decades younger than he was. Then he hugged her and raised her in the air, making her twirl around in his embrace.

“It’s so long since the last time we saw each other in person!”, he exclaimed. “How are you? And when I hoped to finally see you last month at Covenant Castle for Shin Makoku’s anniversary festival, then Friedrich told me that you didn’t feel like taking the long journey because you didn’t feel well! Are you better now?”, he switched from enthusiasm to concern in a blink of an eye, but she didn’t seem concerned by the swift change in his older brother’s attitude… she was a von Christ too, after all, and it actually was a genetic trait that ran in the family line. A Wind Wielder trait, to be more specific, and she was one too…

“…not quite, if I have to tell you the truth, but—”

“Oh Gods! Are you gravely sick?! You don’t have some strange illness, do you?! Please, tell me you are ok!! _Oh Shinou!_ It’s already _a month_!! And you’ve _never_ been delicate before!!”, Gunter interrupted her mid-sentence and she just decided to wait for him to calm down a bit before completing what she was going to tell him, because she knew that trying to interrupt him in his frilly storm of ramblings while it was still raging on full force was totally of no avail.

“Nothing serious, Gunter! I’m just pregnant.”, she brightly smiled at him and Gunter suddenly stopped, taken by surprise. Then, a couple of seconds later, a loud cry filled the air and he hugged her again, making her fly as if she was a little child.

“OH SHINOU!! IT’S _MAGNIFICENT_!! CONGRATULATIONS!! I’LL BECOME AN UNCLE!! UNCLE GUNTER!! OH, IT SOUNDS WONDERFUL, DON’T YOU BELIEVE SO TOO?!”, he shouted into her ears and she merrily laughed a “Thank you, brother. Yes, it does.” to him.

Then Gunter stopped and thought about it for a moment, finally letting her go.

“ _That stupid Friedrich!_ ”, he abruptly complained, totally out of nowhere. “He could have just told me when I saw him at Covenant Castle! _Oh!_ When I’ll meet him later, I’ll _definitely_ give him a piece of my mind about it! You’re _my_ _sister_ , after all!! I had all the right to know about something like that right away—”, Gunter started to fume, a little offended by the lack of consideration of his position in the family given that now _he_ was the head of it, but Lady Sylvia von Christ laughed again and gently but firmly hit him on the head with the side of her hand.

“It’s not his fault: I still wasn’t sure before he left for the Capital, so I just didn’t tell him.”, she flatly explained and that, finally, seemed to be enough to make Gunter calm down once and for all.

Just because it actually didn’t occurred to him that she might have at least _written_ to him when the news was confirmed……

“By the way, Sylvia, it’s really great news! I’m so happy for you both!”, he concluded, broadly smiling again. “…but would you be so kind as to accompany me to my rooms?”, his tone suddenly switched for the umpteenth time since they exchanged the first greetings. “The journey was really draining and I would like to wash myself and change from these dusty clothes more than anything else in the world right now…”

“Sure, Gunter! I’ll show you to your quarters for your stay.”, she sympathetically replied and led the way. “But you have to promise me that you’ll make it quick, because I want to enjoy your company for as long as I can, since I gather that you won’t stay very long now that the Maoh is away for his mission…”, she suggested, and Gunter took a deep breath and smiled at her a suddenly _pensive_ smile.

“I promise.”, he said. Then, after a brief pause, before entering his rooms, he added: “…and, given the news, I guess I’ll ask for your help and your advice. But now I really, _really_ need to take a bath.”, he suddenly cut short with a slightly conspiratorial half smile at her, knowing far too well that his last sentence had risen her curiosity. “See you later, Sylvia. I’ll summon you the moment I’ll be presentable again.”

-&-

“Soooo…”, Lady Sylvia started once her brother and her were finally in front of a cup of tea and some biscuits in Gunter’s parlor. “What was all that mystery about? You’ve been cruel, Gunter: if there was anything at all, you could have at least wait for _now_ to hint at that…”, she complained in a nice pout. “You know I’m curious by nature!”

Gunter mischievously smirked at her, but soon the smirk became a very large smile.

“I’m going to be a father too.”, he confessed and a cry as loud as the one of her own brother when he received _her_ news filled the room.

“REALLY?! REALLY REALLY?!?”, she shouted.

“Really really”, Gunter replied not being able to stop smiling.

“REALLY REALLY REALLY?!?”, she repeated, and this time Gunter burst out laughing.

“Yes, and I believe that yours and mine will be born more or less in the same period, if not even the same month.”

“OH GODS! IT’S WONDERFUL!”, she cried, moved to tears of joy for her brother’s news.

Then, all of a sudden, Gunter’s expression became serious and he stood up from his seat and bent over her in order to take her hands in his.

“Promise me, Sylvia, that whatever might happen in the future, even if they’re just cousins and not brother and sister like us, we will make them grow up together as much as we can. Promise me that we won’t make our parents’ mistakes again…”

At those words, Lady von Christ couldn’t stop the tears anymore. Then, as abruptly as his brother’s last movement, she raised too, she bypassed the tea table between them and let go of Gunter’s hands only to throw her arms around his neck to hug him.

“I promise” was all she said, and it was enough.

So they stayed like that for a while, and, the moment Gunter finally felt able to pick up with his talk and reach the main topic, Lord von Radford knocked at the door and entered without waiting for a reply.

“What’s all this commotion about?! I heard my wife’s screams from the other side of the mansion…”, he commented with a clearly jokingly stern tone. “Hello, Gunter. How do you do.”

“How do you do, Friedrich.”, he widely smile at him in return. “You know, the enthusiasm runs in our family.”, he replied, and, at that, Lord von Radford finally burst out laughing.

“It’s a great pleasure to have you here, brother-in-law. You know, it’s more than twelve years since the last time you found enough time to pay us a visit here in my lands. Sylvia really misses you at times.”, the older man softly rebuked him and Gunter sighed but finally hugged him.

“I miss her too, you know? But to run a mansion is tiring enough, as you know, and I have to take care of half the issues of Covenant Castle and the Maoh’s territories, of the Maoh’s education, and of all the matters of the von Christ lands at distance… I barely have time enough to breathe…”

“Yeah, yeah! I know! But now, cut the chatter: what was all that commotion about? I want to know too.”, he smiled at his guest and before Gunter could reply, Lady Sylvia stepped in.

“Gunter’s going to become father! Isn’t it wonderful?! And I’ll become aunt for real this time!”, she declared to her husband and then she turned towards his brother once again. “Tell me, Gunter: is it Gisela’s?”, she suddenly asked and Gunter almost chocked at the suggestion.

“Sylvia!! _No_!! I’m her foster father! Her _father_!! How in the world could such a silly idea even cross your mind?!” he replied, utterly shocked by the suggestion, and that strong rejection of that idea clearly left the couple at a loss for words – and options.

“Then who is it?”, Friedrich suddenly stepped in. “Because, well… weren’t your likings more pointed at men?”, he pointed out with a slight frown, and Gunter sighed in response and sat down again, waving a hand at them so that they did the same on the sofa on the opposite side of the small tea table now separating them.

“That’s the point”, Gunter commented, serious, after a long pause.

He had hoped to speak to his sister before having to tell Friedrich, but the Fates clearly weren’t of the same opinion as him this time, so he just had to go with the flow…

“It’s Anissina’s.”, he finally declared, and where Lord von Radford let through an impressed whistle, his sister shouted a “ _Poison Lady_ Anissina von Karbelnikoff?!” that got a laugh out of both men in the room before Gunter suddenly went back to a serious expression.

“Yes, Sylvia. Do you actually know any other Anissina, by the way?”, he mocked her, but then the umpteenth heavy sigh left his lips. “But that’s not _all_ the real reason that brought me here.”, he went on, and Lord von Radford sobered from his shock and gave his brother-in-law all his attention.

“Then what is?”, he asked, and Sylvia decided to take a step back in the conversation, remembering her brother’s words of before and feeling a little guilty for her lack of tact and understanding; but, when Gunter fidgeted at her husband’s due question, she raised from her seat and grabbed his hands in hers.

“That’s ok, brother. You can tell us. We are family. What’s the problem?”

Gunter sighed and, moved by his sister’s words, a lone tear ran along his cheek.

He gave her a muted ‘Thank you’ before finally gathering up the courage to tell them what he actually had come there for.

“It’s a long story…”, he started, a little uncertain. He wasn’t ashamed, but he really didn’t want to be judged badly by his own family.

“Please, Gunter. Go on. I promise we won’t judge you.” Lord von Radford broke the silence that fell upon them after Gunter’s first statement, as if knowing that _that_ was what was refraining the other man from going on and finally open up to them.

“You both know that I fell in love with Gwendal at first sight the moment I met him when I was ten and he was only three years old, don’t you?”, he started, and then he narrated all the details of the development of their relationship, and of how Anissina came up with the crazy but pretty generous for her standards idea of ‘sharing’.

“ _Sharing_?!”, Sylvia blurted, totally aghast.

“Yes.”, he calmly answered back, and then he explained: “It actually started as a compromise, but we soon developed feelings for each other, and now we just can’t choose.”

“But Gunter! It’s crazy!”, his sister argued, still not knowing what to believe of all that situation.

“Is it really?”, he asked back, calm, and maybe a little let down.

“So the child might not be yours…”, she went on, and, at those words, the hurt clearly showed on his face.

“Is there really any difference?”, Gunter retorted again. “It’s not as if I cared that Gisela wasn’t mine when I adopted her. And still, she is my daughter, and I love her very much. Now, I love Gwendal, and I love Anissina. I love them dearly, and both of them love me back. Now”, he continued, “Anissina is going to be mother”, he said, “and Gwendal and I are going to be fathers, and _we want_ to be fathers to her child or children. As I can be a father to Gisela, I can be a father to Anissina’s children, even if they’re going to not be mine in the strictest sense of the word. And that’s for _these_ reasons that we decided to move now and ask for the Council’s support: we want to legalize our union, but to do so, we need a revision of the law.”

“The three of you actually already broke it the moment you decided to start an illicit relationship, Gunter…”, a pensive Lord von Radford pinpointed, and Gunter bit his lower lip in response.

“Yes”, he agreed. “But we actually did no harm to anyone with that. So I’m wondering: is it really a good law for starters? I love two people, and they love me back. We don’t do any harm, so why can’t we be happy together?”, he queried them, disarmingly frank, and Friedrich heaved a sigh.

“You certainly are in quite a plight, brother-in-law.”, he stated as a matter of fact, and with a soft snort Gunter nodded once and looked at his sister, waiting for a comment from her.

“Are you disappointed?”, he finally asked her at her silence, and she finally answered with an “I don’t know… actually”, then she pointed out after a moment, “I think I’m just surprised and a bit confused.”, she clarified and, at her words, Gunter couldn’t refrain from heaving a relieved sigh.

“I’m glad.”, he softly uttered and smiled at her before turning back to Lord von Radford, waiting now for his response.

“Yours is a pretty rare case”, he pondered at last, after a very long pause. “and, until now, this law never gave us problems of any sort.”

“I believe that the peculiarity of the occurrence is strictly related with the probability of troubles it might cause. But Friedrich, a little revision to this law might be able to legalize also some kind of unions that now are left on the edge of the razor of legality like all the matters of children by blood for same sex couples. It actually doesn’t happen often, but you’ll certainly convene with me that it’s not so rare an occurrence as we’d like it to be…”, Gunter went on, no more emotional but pragmatic, now. “The revision we’d like to submit to the Council would be not only for those children, but also for the third party of those private pacts’ sake, other than for the three of us.”

Lord von Radford meditated a lot over that last point and finally agreed.

“You actually have a point here.”, he concurred, and at that Gunter went on with another essential point.

“And you know what might happen if we will be branded as outlaws, don’t you?”

“When you put it like that, there’s only one possible choice…”, Lord von Radford’s tone suddenly became grave. “Basically, you’re asking us whose side we’re on, and you know that, after the war, no one is on Stoffel’s side anymore…”, he remarked slightly shaking his head and sighing, and Gunter didn’t answer.

-&-

Meanwhile, at the castle, Gisela took a deep breath before knocking at Anissina’s door.

She had already told Lady Cheri and now it was her friend’s turn.

After the astounding news of her pregnancy and her relationship with her foster father AND the previous Maoh’s first son, approaching her had become quite embarrassing. So, all the meetings with her after that had always been a little icy and strictly related on Anissina’s health…

But she deserved to know of her decision _directly_ from her, because she was still her friend despite everything.

“Yes, come in”, she heard her reply coming from the other side of the wooden panel.

“Anissina”, Gisela started once inside with the door closed behind her back, and the woman, sat at her desk in her lab, raised her eyes from the paper where she was sketching on what was probably her last idea for an invention and watched at her, serious and evidently not expecting to see her.

 _‘Maybe she thought that I was Greta – or Lindsey_ …’, Gisela pondered.

“I don’t know if my father or Gwendal told you, but Lord von Voltaire received a letter from the Maoh a few days after his departure, in which he asked if I could join them for their mission.”, she started, and Anissina finally met her eyes, seeming more than just a little appalled by the news.

“No, they actually didn’t tell me”, she said, but after a moment of silent meditating, she added: “…but it’s not normal… why don’t ask you directly before leaving if they wanted you to join them instead of sending a mail practically right after their departure?”, the redhead woman asked her, pondering the possibilities for such an unexpected occurrence, first of all because the sage was with them too. “It actually makes very little sense…”

“Well”, Gisela started after a long pause with a grave tone in her voice. “I profusely thought about it too and neither me nor Lord von Voltaire or my father could actually see the reasons behind the Maoh’s sudden request – a request that actually _wasn’t_ an order –. By the way”, she went on, “I finally decided to agree and join them in Caloria as they asked me to do.”, she declared. “I’m leaving.”

“ _Now_?!”, Anissina jumped from her seat, shocked by the _inexistent_ notification of her decision, at least to her.

“Yes”, Gisela cut short. “Everything is ready, and I already checked for the ships leaving for Caloria. There’s one in less than half a day from now. I’m taking it.”

Anissina heaved a sigh at her announcement, but then nodded once, resolute, at the woman standing in front of her and whom she considered a _friend_ , even if all her relationships with people around her had always been more than a little awkward since the moment she was born, and maybe, from the outside, it actually didn’t seem like she cared for her.

“I’ll tell Gunter.”, she replied and, when Gisela was already by the door, she stopped her.

“By the way…”, the redhead scientist went on, and the healer slowly turned back at her. “……take care.”

Then, at those last two simple words, so out of character for someone like Anissina, Gisela smiled, astonished, but in a good way.

“You too.”, she wished her back and then she finally left.

 

END OF PART 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo... please, if you liked this story, leave a kudos or a comment! Please! PLEEEEEASE!!
> 
> By the way, I'm happy to inform you that I already started to write the third part, and, given that it started to go kind of rogue all of a sudden, with hints for another (long) side story about the Sage, I think that I'll divide the story more than I previously planned...  
> So, if everything won't change again, this series will be divided in 5 parts at the very end of it, and not 4 as I had decided.
> 
> I really hope that you'll continue to follow me, even if it'll take a very long time, I fear...  
> Meanwhile, thank you all for reading my story so far. I love you :D


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